The most brazen outlaw in mortgage fraud has been arrested.
Matthew B. Cox, who allegedly masterminded a multimillion dollar mortgage fraud scheme across the South, was nabbed Thursday afternoon in Nashville by U.S. Secret Service agents who were tipped off by a babysitter who learned about him from a newspaper article.
The arrest came just one day after Cox’s accomplice, 34-year-old Rebecca Marie Hauck, was sentenced by a federal court in Atlanta to more than five years in prison and ordered to pay almost $1.2 million in restitution for her role in the scheme.
The couple, who were dubbed the Bonnie and Clyde of mortgage fraud, was finally behind bars Thursday night after more than two years evading authorities in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee.
“Ms. Hauck was involved in a fraud scheme that resulted not only in millions of dollars in losses but also snarled property titles on many residences,” U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said in a statement announcing Hauck’s sentencing. “She and codefendant Matthew Cox stole homeowners’ identities and placed multiple loans on houses, which created even more victims.”
Hauck pleaded guilty in May to mortgage fraud conspiracy and bank fraud; she was arrested in March while living under a stolen identity in Houston.
According to a statement issued Thursday by the Secret Service, Cox will be prosecuted by federal authorities in Georgia. He was wanted on a slew of charges that included mortgage fraud, identity theft, conspiracy, mail and wire fraud, laundering money and Social Security fraud.
Cox, who reportedly had plastic surgery to change his appearance, was arrested after an elderly babysitter read a newspaper story about him. The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department assisted in the arrest, the Secret Service said.
Cox, 36, a former an accomplished artist, started his own mortgage company, was charged with fraud in Tampa, then, according to court records, masterminded a scheme to use phony identities and falsified records to make nearly $3 million with fraudulent loans on dilapidated properties in Tampa Heights.
Cox apparently hooked up with Hauck in 2003 after they reportedly met through an Internet matchmaking site, according to published reports. She was down on her luck, having lost her job and fallen into bankruptcy after getting addicted to gambling in Las Vegas.
After fleeing Florida in the summer of 2004, the couple set out to run their alleged scam across the South.
Authorities said Cox and Hauck would rent houses using phony names, some of which came from identities they’d stolen from the homeless and others.
Once they were in the house, they created forged documents that removed the owner’s lien on the house, and then filed those papers at a county clerk’s office.
“The defendants then stole the identities of the owners and fraudulently obtained multiple new mortgage loans on the properties,” prosecutors said. “After they executed the scheme in one location, they changed locations and perpetrated the same fraudulent scheme.”
Authorities said the couple used the stolen identities to “obtain drivers licenses, purchase vehicles, lease mail drops, rent apartments and open bank accounts to receive scheme proceeds.”
Cox may have stolen more than $15 million through his scams, authorities have estimated.
Cox even chronicled his activities in an unpublished book titled The Associates that was confiscated by police. It mirrored Cox’s own life and was basically a primer on how to commit mortgage fraud.
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The fictional protagonist in Cox’s book, a former University of South Florida art student, leaves a $26,000-a-year insurance sales job to make it big in the mortgage business, finds himself in hot water with the FBI and executes an elaborate plan to defraud lenders of millions before making his getaway. Cox, who had studied art at the University of South Florida, left an insurance sales job to get into the mortgage business and then start his alleged fraud schemes. According to Forbes magazine, Cox would use his stolen identities to buy expensive sports cars, and then leave the cars in public parking lots. He would pose as a Red Cross worker to steal the identities of homeless men. He was on antidepressants, wore lift shoes, had his teeth capped and often carried a gun. He frequented tanning salons and had cosmetic surgery that included a nose job, chin liposuction and male breast reduction. |
