Peter Cash Doye, 40, of San Diego, was indicted on 17 counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, the FBI said in a news release Wednesday.
The FBI is looking for other alleged victims. Authorities say the scheme diverted millions of dollars from renovations and asset sales into the pockets of Doye, Courtland Gettel, 42, and Tucson lawyer Jeffrey Greenberg, 66.
The indictment filed Aug. 10 in U.S. District Court in Tucson alleged Doye and Gettel took out a $65 million loan with Doral Property Finance in September 2013 to buy and renovate commercial properties through their real estate development firm Variant Holding Co. The following month, they entered into a $73.5 million financing contract with real estate firm Beach Point.
The alleged scheme included defrauding Beach Point of nearly $12 million in payments from escrow accounts for work that was never done and submitting $6.4 million in fraudulent invoices to Doral for renovation work that similarly was never done.
In the course of the fraud, the conspirators wired $17.7 million across state lines, prosecutors alleged in the indictment.
Prosecutors asked the court to order Doye to forfeit $18.4 million in connection with the fraud scheme.
Doye was senior managing director of Variant, which had offices in San Diego and Tucson, the FBI said.
A LinkedIn page registered under the name Court Gettel said he is the CEO of Variant and graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
Gettel and Greenberg, who has practiced law in Arizona since 1983, pleaded guilty in May to charges of conspiracy and wire fraud in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of California, as the Star reported May 26.
Federal prosecutors called the scheme an “extraordinary fraud” in which the conspirators took out $33.6 million in loans against multimillion-dollar homes in La Jolla and Del Mar and then forged documents to fool more lenders into believing the homes were debt-free.
The Department of Justice alleged they forged real estate lien releases and other records, “wreaking havoc on the chain of title for these homes” at the San Diego County Recorder’s Office. They then defaulted on the loans and caused millions of dollars in losses to lenders.
Gettel and Greenberg were ordered to forfeit $33.6 million by a federal judge in California on June 24.
Gettel and Greenberg previously pleaded guilty to their involvement in the scheme to defraud Beach Point and Doral.
Doye’s next court date is scheduled for Aug. 26. The sentencing for Gettel and Greenberg was scheduled for early August, but was postponed until the after the sentencing in the southern California case, court documents show.
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3rd man indicted in real estate fraud scheme with Tucson link
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Would you like the ending of the story? Peter Cash Doye was acquitted late last week of all charges. Email me for full story.
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