An alleged Florida con man fingered for heisting $15 million in sham real estate deals. A dead woman with drugs in her system and bruises on her body. Money stashed in offshore accounts.
What sounds like the making of an Elmore Leonard novel or a Quentin Tarantino film is actually the guts of a south Florida criminal case involving a former mortgage broker named Jack Pentz who is facing eight federal charges, 65 years in prison and a fine of $2.5 million.
Pentz, 40, the former co-owner of Waterford Mortgage Co. in Naples, Fla., is accused of bilking retired businessman Ron Brown and his wife, Michele, out of $15 million. The U.S. Attorney’s office for the Middle District of Florida brought an indictment against Pentz in September of 2002 and added two charges in May. All told he is charged with three counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering.
“The indictment alleges that Pentz converted the victim’s monies to his own personal uses, contrary to the agreement the victim had with the officers of Waterford and without the knowledge, authority and consent of the victim,” U.S. Attorney Paul Perez said in a statement.
Prosecutors say that from January 1996 to April 2000 Pentz misled Brown into believing he was investing in mortgage notes secured by real estate. But the notes turned out to be forgeries, Perez said.
“Jack Pentz defrauded (Brown) of money by means of false representations and promises concerning the status of various mortgage notes in which the victim had an interest in order to induce the victim to double fund some loans and fund others which were bogus,” Perez said.
Pentz entered into a “warehouse line of credit” with Brown that over time reached $15 million, Perez said.
According to court documents the money was used to buy property in Florida and elsewhere in the South, pay for vacations and fund shopping sprees. Nearly $5 million was invested in offshore junk bond accounts in the Channel Islands off the coast of France. It is unclear if that money will be recovered. Waterford was placed in receivership by federal authorities in 2000 as part of a lawsuit the Browns filed against Pentz.
Just last week Pentz’s request for dismissal of the charges against him was denied by a U.S. District Judge in Fort Myers, Fla. He is scheduled to go to trial in October.
Pentz has plead innocent to all charges. In court appearances, he has implicated his former partner in Waterford, Lauri Smith, in the theft of Brown’s money. In April of 1998, Smith was found dead in a San Diego hotel room with cocaine in her system and bruises on her body from what published reports have described as a struggle.
Pentz had denied any role in Smith’s death, which was ruled a suicide.
Two former employees of Waterford who are also defendants in the case are cooperating with prosecutors as part of plea agreements with federal prosecutors.
