Disgraced real estate agent indicted on mortgage fraud charges
A Dixon real estate agent-turned-convicted bank robber now has another label: fraud suspect.
On Thursday, a federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging Hubert Peter Rotteveel, 49, with participating in a mortgage fraud scheme, U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.
Rotteveel is serving a four-year, eight-month prison sentence for the June 30, 2010, robberies of banks in Woodland and West Sacramento.
According to the federal indictment, Rotteveel acted as a real estate salesperson for 13 properties in Dixon that were purchased by two people. He is accused of inflating the properties’ values and working with loan officers to provide false information to lenders about the income and liabilities of the purchasers in order to induce the lenders to fund loans for the properties.
For most of the transactions, when the sales closed, the escrow officer distributed funds to a bank account in the name of Windmill Properties, a company owned by Rotteveel, without disclosing to the lenders that these payments were made, the indictment alleges.
A total of more than $700,000 was distributed to Windmill Properties under this scheme, and the lenders lost more than $3 million when all 13 properties underwent foreclosure, Wagner said.
If convicted, Rotteveel faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
He is scheduled to be paroled in May 2014 after pleading no contest last year to three counts of second-degree robbery and one count of attempted second-degree robbery for his back-to-back heists at River City Bank in Woodland and First Northern Bank of Dixon in West Sacramento.
Authorities said Rotteveel, also the former general manager of the Sacramento Knights professional indoor soccer team, was armed with a BB gun when he carried out the robberies. He was caught when a dye pack exploded on him in front of police officers who were responding to the West Sacramento bank.
In a jailhouse interview with The Davis Enterprise the day after his arrest, Rotteveel blamed his conduct on the crash of the housing market, which he said left him destitute and desperate to find a way to provide for his children.
“When you’re caught in certain situations, you can lose your compass,” Rotteveel said. “You’re walking in a gray area and you don’t know right from wrong.”
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or (530) 747-8048. Follow her on Twitter @laurenkeene
Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=92501
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Posted by Lauren Keene
on Oct 13 2011.
Last Login: Mon 21 May 2012 04:26:23 PM PDT
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“..blamed his conduct on the crash of the housing market” Otherwise his scam to steal millions from banks might have worked.
Guess schools and parents don’t have time for teaching that moral/ethical stuff anymore.
Schools, parents and churches used to teach this stuff.
I’m impressed, I must say. Really seldom do I learn a weblog that is equally educational and entertaining, and let me tell you, you’ve hit the nail on the head.