Mayor

Suspended North Miami Mayor Lucie Tondreau Convicted in Mortgage Fraud Scheme

A federal jury has convicted the suspended mayor of North Miami on charges of participating in an $8 million mortgage fraud scheme.

Jurors returned the verdict Tuesday in the case against Lucie Tondreau after a 12-day trial.

Tondreau, 54, faces up to 30 years in prison for conspiracy and wire fraud convictions. Sentencing is scheduled for March 2015.

"Today’s conviction against Marie Lucie Tondreau is a success in our continuing efforts to fight mortgage fraud that jeopardizes our nation’s financial institutions," U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said in a statement. "Tondreau abused her prominence in the community to perpetrate the $8,000,000 mortgage fraud scheme, which thanks to the efforts of my Office’s prosecutors and federal and state law enforcement we successfully unraveled. We will continue to investigate and prosecute individuals who engage in deceptive and fraudulent behavior, fueled by greed."

Prosecutors say Tondreau and others conspired before she became mayor to defraud lenders using straw buyers, who obtained inflated loans for 20 properties. The scheme allegedly involved recruiting buyers through a radio program catering to Haitian-American listeners.

Tondreau's business partner, Karl Oreste, previously pleaded guilty in the case.

A native of Haiti, Tondreau became North Miami's first female Haitian-American mayor in June 2013, beating out former mayor Kevin Burns in a runoff. Burns later filed a lawsuit, accusing Tondreau of not having lived in the city for at least a year before the election. It was later dismissed.

She was suspended from office by Gov. Rick Scott in May. A new mayor, Smith Joseph, has since been elected.

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