MIAMI BEACH REAL ESTATE INVESTOR PLEADS GUILTY TO BANK FRAUD
R. Alexander Acosta , United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced that defendant Richard Layfield pled guilty before United States District Court Judge Alan S. Gold on Monday, June 11, 2007 to one count of bank fraud. Layfield faces a maximum statutory term of imprisonment of thirty (30) years.
According to the charges, between February 1990 and July 19, 1994, four judgments totaling close to $17,000,000 were entered against Layfield. The creditors in these judgments were Halfacre Construction Company, Landmark Realty, Total Bank, and American Security Bank. These judgments were never satisfied by Richard Layfield.
In April 1999, Richard Layfield applied for a loan from Fremont Investment & Loan. Funds from the loan were to be used for the purchase and renovation/reconstruction of properties he was purchasing on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach. As a part of the application process, Layfield was required to complete a borrower’s questionnaire and provide information regarding his financial background. In response to two questions asking about outstanding judgments in the past 10 years, Layfield failed to disclose the four outstanding judgments, all of which had been entered within ten (10) years of the application. As a result of this omission, Layfield and his limited partnership, Shops At Ocean Court, were approved for a loan of $23,700,000.
Mr. Acosta commended the investigative efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lois Foster-Steers.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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