Twice Convicted FL Man Sentenced to 22 years

United States District Judge Anne C. Conway sentenced 36 year old Garry S. Martin to 22 years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection to mortgage fraud and thus violating his supervised release according to the press release announced by United States Attorney A. Brian Albritton.  Mr. Martin was also ordered to pay restitution of a sum over one million dollars to the victims of his fraud. Mr. Martin original pleaded guilty to the crime on July 16th of 2009 however was not sentence until January 22 of this year.

Mr. Martin was convicted by in 2006 by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York for the very same offence. The case against Mr. Martin in 2006 involved Mr. Martin misrepresenting mortgage applications to Citimortgage, Inc with the intent to defraud the mortgage lender. The applications presented by Mr. Martin to the mortgage lender also included inflated property values as well as assets and income of the individuals named on the applications.

Mr. Martin accepted a plea agreement back in 2006 in which he was allowed to be on supervised release and was halted from providing real estate services. Mr. Martin after his conviction maintained his real estate license and obtained his real estate broker license in the state of Florida. He then formed several companies that he ran various mortgage fraud schemes through. The companies he formed are as follows: Antigua Housing and Management, Inc, Antigua Real Estate, Antigua Abstract LLC, GSM Financial LLC and Savvy Professional Title Company.  The schemes that Mr. Martin ran through these companies included reverse mortgage fraud, foreclosure fraud, and various mortgage fraud schemes. The schemes went on until August of 2008 when the Federal Bureau of Investigation shut him down for the second time but not until after he had defrauded over five million dollars from various lending institutions and unknowing consumers.

Mr. Martin used Antigua Housing and Management, Inc. to victimized homeowners facing foreclosure by promising them that Antigua Housing and Management, Inc make their overdue mortgage payments current by refinancing the property and continue to make the new mortgage payments. Victims would then send payments to Mr. Martin in the belief that Antigua Housing and Management, Inc were making the mortgage payments on the home, when in fact Mr. Martin keep the payments and never sent money onto the lenders involved.

Mr. Martin used Savvy and Antigua Abstract to defraud banks processing reverse mortgages. Mr. Martin knowing processed and submitted fraudulent reverse mortgage applications to lending institutions. He arranged the mortgage closings as well and then sidetracked the mortgage proceeds for his own personal benefit. He also created buyers that did not exist and non-existent sellers to further his scheme.

The case against Mr. Martin was part of the Middle District of Florida’s Mortgage Fraud Surge which is a joint operation of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, The Federal Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies both state and local.

The case was prosecuted by United States Attorney Vincent Citro.