Real Estate Fraud—Leonard Fazio

A Des Moines, Iowa, federal jury has convicted a real estate agent on two counts of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud.^[1] Leonard Fazio faced 9 fraud charges in total relating to misleading paperwork in the resale of foreclosed homes.^[2] According to prosecutors, Mr. Fazio “orchestrated a scheme from his Re/Max A-1 Best Realtors office to improperly pad his commission from a California-based mortgage company.”^[3] While the jury acquitted Mr. Fazio on five of those six charges, they found him guilty of mail fraud when he requested a reimbursement of a $1,650 trash clean-up bill at a Des Moines home.^[4] That bill was inflated using fake invoices and checks written on a closed account.^[5] The other two convictions involved the sale of a house to Mr. Fazio’s former girlfriend, which was sold three weeks later at a nearly 300% profit.^[6] In a separate agreement with prosecutors, Mr. Fazio agreed to forfeit more than $45,000 from the sale of that house.^[7]

We have previously discussed wire fraud and mail fraud here.

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[1] Jeff Eckhoff, D.M. Realtor Fazio Convicted of Mail Fraud, Des Moines Register, Oct. 11, 2005, available here.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.