A Sarasota, Fla., real estate agent has been sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to pay more than $2 million in fines for his role in what U.S. District Court Judge Richard Lazzara called “a very complex, sophisticated mortgage fraud scheme” involving nine condos that were flipped the same day they were sold in February 2007.
The sentence imposed on J. Patrick Brester was more severe than those handed down on three other defendants who accepted plea deals with prosecutors — none will serve more than two years, the Herald-Tribune reports.
At least 40 other Southwest Florida residents have been convicted of crimes associated with house-flipping during the boom, the paper said. Only two defendants have received longer sentences than Brester. Source: heraldtribune.com
