Daniel Duffy, 34, Sebastian, Florida, has been sentenced to seven years and three months in federal prison for aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit mail, wire, and bank fraud. As part of his sentence, the court also entered a money judgment in the amount of $4,861,058.70, the proceeds of the conspiracy to commit mail, wire, and bank fraud. Duffy pled guilty on March 25, 2010.

In two instances, Duffy purchased residences in Reunion, Florida through a straw buyer and falsely claimed to have a contract with the straw buyer to do repairs on the
houses. Based on those fictitious contracts, Duffy obtained $848,370 in cash at closing from the sellers.

In another transaction, Duffy purported to sell property from one of his companies to a straw buyer. As the purported seller, Duffy received about $91,000 in cash as well as proceeds that were used to pay off part of an existing loan on the property. To qualify for the new mortgage in the amount of $650,000, Duffy submitted (in the name of the straw buyer) an altered bank statement showing an account balance of $515,759.55, when, in fact, the account had a balance of $232.47.

According to court documents, Duffy and his conspirators obtained mortgages totaling $6,055,724 based on fraudulent applications that grossly overstated the applicants' income and assets and omitted significant liabilities. Duffy supported these misrepresentations in many instances with documents that he had altered to change the name of the account owner and to reflect grossly inflated balances.

U.S. Attorney Robert E. O'Neill announced the sentencing by U.S. District Judge Gregory A. Presnell.

This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Katherine Ho.