Bonnie and Clyde with a new twist
She's in custody, accused by federal officials of multiple mortgage-fraud schemes. But he's still on the loose.
By JEFF TESTERMAN
Published April 1, 2006
TAMPA - Matthew B. Cox and Rebecca M. Hauck were dubbed the Bonnie and Clyde of mortgage fraud, accused of brazenly stealing identities and forging documents in several southern states to make off with more than $1-million.
Now, Bonnie is behind bars.
Hauck, 34, a former legal secretary who left behind a young son to join Cox, was arrested by the U.S. Secret Service last week in Houston. She awaits transfer to Atlanta for arraignment on a 42-count federal indictment that could subject her to more than 400 years in prison on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering and use of stolen identities.
Clyde, meanwhile, remains on the lam.
Cox, 36, a former University of South Florida art student, aspiring author and one-time Tampa mortgage broker, is named in the indictment with Hauck and faces the same charges. But he is also believed to be the mastermind of a wide-ranging mortgage-fraud scheme in Tampa being investigated by the FBI.
Two of Cox's associates already have been convicted of fraud charges in Tampa and sent to prison, and a federal prosecutor told a judge last year that as many as 13 more persons face indictment in schemes involving the use of phony records on dilapidated homes in Tampa Heights and Ybor City to defraud lenders of millions.
In Atlanta, U.S. government prosecutors hope Hauck will provide clues to Cox's whereabouts.
"Sentencing provisions provide for the possibility of leniency for cooperation," said Gale McKenzie, an assistant U.S. attorney in Atlanta. "We would still very much like to know where Mr. Cox is."
The 63-page indictment against Cox and Hauck, unsealed and made public for the first time when Hauck was arrested on March 21, alleges the couple began a 22-month interstate crime binge in late 2003, crisscrossing Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama and the Carolinas to steal identities, set up mail drops and apply for credit using counterfeit IDs.
Cox, using an array of real and invented identities, has frustrated federal agents by managing to disappear each time an investigative noose was being tightened.
In Tampa, where he was already on probation for fraud and grand theft, he used the aliases Brandon Green, James Redd and others to sign for more than $2.7-million in fraudulent loans, according to court papers. He vanished in December 2003, around the time the St. Petersburg Times published "Dubious Deals," an article detailing questionable real estate transactions by an Ybor City investment firm called Urban Equity, where Cox worked as acquisitions director.
In Atlanta, Cox and Hauck established headquarters and adopted new identities for a new round of fraudulent loans, the indictments say. Cox stole the identity of Gerald Scott Cugno, a Tampa mortgage broker who had worked with Cox for several years. Hauck took the name of Michielle V. Joseph, a former in-law, before becoming Grace E. Hudson, who checked in to an Atlanta plastic surgery center for a $12,000 facelift to change her appearance, authorities said.
By the time Georgia residents discovered they had been victimized, Cox and Hauck were in Columbia, S.C., where Cox was using phony names to sign for new loans. Tipped off by a suspicious attorney, authorities in South Carolina actually had Cox in custody for questioning. But no one realized who he was. Cox was released and vanished again.
Officials were keeping mum this week about whether Cox and Hauck were still working together when she was arrested in Houston.
The indictments of the couple reveal a systematic approach to enrichment with a mind toward avoiding detection by committing illegal acts in two or more states at once.
On Jan. 29, 2004, for instance - just weeks after leaving Tampa - Cox traveled from Georgia to Tallahassee and used a stolen identity to rent a home owned by Theresa A. Knight at 1537 Procter St.
Eleven days later, according to the court papers, Hauck paid for a mail drop at the UPS Store outside Atlanta. For ID, Hauck presented a fake Florida driver's license in the name of Theresa A. Knight, the Tallahassee homeowner.
On the same day, Cox again traveled from Georgia to Tallahassee, this time making a stop at the Leon County Clerk of Courts. There, he filed a counterfeit satisfaction of mortgage form with forged signatures, thus creating the appearance that a loan previously made to Knight on the Procter Street home had been paid in full. The satisfaction form lacked the required corporate seal, but it worked.
Now, it was time to assume the identity of Knight and apply for a new mortgage loan on the Procter Street property. On Feb. 23, 2004, the indictments say, Hauck faxed information for an application for a $53,000 loan to a bank in Davie. The application, in Knight's name, gave a phony employer and listed Knight's address as the mail drop previously established by Hauck.
A week later, Cox and Hauck drove to Tallahassee for the loan closing, where Hauck signed the loan documents in the name of "T. Knight." At Cox's request, the loan proceeds were disbursed in several names - all stolen identities - and then deposited in accounts set up in those names.
On March 17, 2004, about six weeks after the fraud sequence had begun, Cox and Hauck appeared at the Swan Center for Plastic Surgery in Atlanta. Cox tendered an $11,545 cashier's check from the fraudulent Procter Street loan to pay for Hauck's facelift. Again, both used identities stolen from others.
The strategy, perfected by Cox in Tampa, according to court records, was repeated in the metro Atlanta area and later in South Carolina.
In every case, lenders were left holding loans made to mythical borrowers on real estate actually owned by someone else. Victimized homeowners faced the real possibility of a foreclosure suit on the loan Cox and Hauck would never repay, and as a consequence, ruined credit.
For Bruce and Bridget Brown, it was even worse.
The Browns agreed to make a short-term $201,000 loan to an earnest young businessman named Gary L. Sullivan to facilitate Sullivan's purchase of their Sandy Lake Road home in Columbia. Until a call from the FBI, the Browns had no clue that Sullivan was actually Cox.
Records show a phony satisfaction was filed appearing to show the $201,000 loan paid in full. That paved the way for Cox-as-Sullivan to apply for three new loans on the property.
The Browns were left without title to the Sandy Lake Road home, now with new mortgage liens on it, and a $201,000 note signed by Sullivan that is all but worthless.
"I'm living in the middle of a nightmare," Bruce Brown said.
Cox did not get away with all the money he's accused of taking.
The Secret Service, tracking the various aliases used by Cox, discovered several bank accounts in the phony names and recently began court action to claim the funds by forfeiture.
The cash, totaling $239,856, was left behind in eight accounts at banks in three states. The favorite alias was Gary L. Sullivan. Government agents found an account in that name with $28,884 in Greenville, S.C., another with $35,363 in Fort Lauderdale and a third in the Sullivan name in Marietta, Ga., this one containing $168,957.
Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Jeff Testerman can be reached at 813 226-3422 or testerman@sptimes.com