The Mortgage Fraud Reporter spoke with Assistant State Attorney Steven Siegel who confirmed that on Friday June 19, 2009 Katina Mickens (pictured below), a mortgage broker from Jacksonville, FL, was sentenced to three years imprisonment for obtaining approximately $60,000 at a real estate closing by filing 3 separate liens which claimed she had carried out home repairs. She had been convicted by a Duval County jury in May 2009.

In all she actually filed 6 such liens totaling approximately $118,000 and is due in court on other counts next month
________________________________________________________________________

Additional Materials

Criminal Information – Mickens was convicted on Counts 1 to 3
Claim of Lien - 721 East 5^th St, Jacksonville
Claim of Lien - 1779 West Sixth St, Jacksonville
Claim of Lien - 1523 West 22^nd Street, Jacksonville
Claim of Lien - 5860 Spellman Road, Jacksonville
Claim of Lien - 578 61^st Street, Jacksonville
Claim of Lien - 4515 Trenton Drive North, Jacksonville

Florida Mortgage Broker License detail
________________________________________________________________________

Assistant State Attorney Steven Siegel told the Florida Times-Union “It wasn’t just a financial crime. … This type of case is why we’re in the position we’re in. You ended up with an individual who basically defrauded a mortgage company into paying $16,000 more than it needed to.”

Picture courtesy of Will Dickey/The Times-Union

The scheme operated by Mickens involved filing a document called a “claim of lien” at the Duval County Courthouse using a the name of a bogus company called J&J Properties. In the claim of lien Mickens reported she was owed money for work and materials used on the relevant property.

In a 2006 Times-Union newspaper report about real estate scams, former owners of five of those properties said they never hired Mickens or J&J to do any repairs, and none were done.

A hearing is scheduled in July about other charges [counts 4 to 7 in the information] involving some of those homes, Assistant State Attorney Siegel told The Mortgage Fraud Reporter.