Three ringleaders accused of orchestrating a real estate theft ring that involved more than $12 million worth of property in Broward County have been arrested, authorities said.
Michael Dupree, 51, Tyrone Jones, 45, Yury Domatov, 50, have been arrested on charges including grand theft, identity theft, deed fraud, and filing fraudulent court filings, Broward Sheriff's Office officials said Tuesday.
Authorities said their investigation began after Broward County Commissioner Tim Ryan alerted the Broward County Property Appraiser when one of his clients was visiting a property he owned in Dania Beach and ran into the fraudsters, who were posing as the owners of the property.
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Investigators discovered the three men and their co-conspirators had filed civil lawsuits against elderly victims, banks and others, claiming properties they owned were dilapidated eyesores and uninhabitable, authorities said.
In one case, they filed a lawsuit against a 76-year-old widow who lived in Dania Beach in an attempt to steal her home, officials said. The suit claimed the home was abandoned and poorly maintained, but in fact the property was in good condition and was the elderly victim’s home for over 26 years.
In some of the lawsuits against bank-owned property, the suspects identified Dupree as the bank's agent authorized to accept service of the lawsuits, officials said.
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Dupree, a convicted felon operating out of a dilapidated mobile home in Hillsborough County, posed as a bank representative while the actual banks, which included U.S. Bank, Deutsche Bank, and Bank of Mellon, were never actually served with the lawsuits, officials said.
The fraudsters then filed fraudulent court documents posing as representatives of the banks and others in which they would tell the court that they did not want the properties, officials said.
In other cases, after fraudulently accepting service of process allegedly on behalf of the banks, they never filed responsive pleadings, and the courts awarded the properties to members of the criminal enterprise, officials said.
In most cases, the banks never even knew these properties were stolen from under them or taken over by the suspects, officials said.
Three of the properties were even used by the suspects as their personal home, and in one case, a suspect tried to register for the Broward County Property Appraiser’s Owner Alert Program, which notifies verified property owners when a deed or other documents are received by the property appraiser transferring ownership of their home, officials said.
Authorities said they expect more arrests to be made in the coming weeks.
