Former real estate salesman Hubert Rotteveel was sentenced to three years and four months of imprisonment for one count of mail fraud. Senior U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb passed the sentence last Tuesday.
A federal jury found Rotteveel guilty of one count of mail fraud related to 13 properties in Dixon last September 2014. Evidence procured during trial point out that Rotteveel acted as a real estate salesman, with more than $7 million in loans that was authorized for just two buyers in the period of seven months.
According to the report, Rotteveel raised the market value of the properties and worked with loan officers to produce false information about the income and liabilities of the buyers, to induce the lenders to fund the loans for the properties and then showed it to the lenders.
In a report by the Sacramento Bee, authorities said that Rotteveel was the one making the down payment for the homes instead of the buyers. By doing so, Rotteveel was the one to receive the money from the lenders upon closing.
The escrow officer for the property distributed the funds from the closing to the company named Windmill properties, a company owned by Rotteveel, without disclosing the payments to the lenders.
The 13 properties in question is being used for rentals and Rotteveel collects the rent through his company, Windmill properties. Reports from authorities state that Rotteveel netted more than $300,000 through the sales in just seven months, while the lenders lost more than $3 million when all 13 properties underwent foreclosure.
This is not the first time that Rotteveel got his hands dirty. According to the report of the Sacramento Bee in 2010, Rotteveel pleaded no contest to three counts of second-degree robbery and one count of attempted second-degree robbery. Yolo Superior Court sentenced Rotteveel to four years and eight months in prison.
