Florida attorney pleads guilty in six-year real estate fraud
Court documents state the scheme netted Saracco “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in seller proceeds, though the full scope of losses has not been publicly disclosed.
Florida fraud risk and what brokers need to watch
The Saracco case lands as undisclosed real estate debt — the precise fraud type at the center of the scheme — posted the largest year-over-year increase of any fraud category in Q2 2026, rising 2.6%, according to the Cotality National Mortgage Application Fraud Risk Index.
The index reached 132 in Q2 2026, with an estimated 1 in 119 mortgage applications showing fraud risk indicators, according to Cotality.
Matt Seguin, senior principal of fraud solutions at Cotality, previously told Mortgage Professional America that pattern-based fraud is among the hardest risks to contain.
“Pattern fraud is really tough. I’ve been really harping on lenders to have a system, a database that you proactively track patterns and look for those kinds of risks,” Seguin said.
