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Attempt to sell house at inflated price leads to fraud charges

By MICHAEL A. MOHAMMED
Published December 15, 2006

TAMPA - Anthony Capsouto was trying to sell a $650,000 Apollo Beach house for the inflated sum of $850,000, authorities say.

But the deal fell through at the bargaining table when Tampa police and the Secret Service walked in.

Police say Capsouto, a 36-year-old Nevada mortgage broker, had teamed up with Muhammed Sekertekin, a 29-year-old Turkish national living illegally in San Diego. Investigators say they planned to funnel the roughly $200,000 surplus from the mortgage into a company Sekertekin had set up a month before.

Both have been charged with fraud involving more than $50,000.

Tampa police Detective Jim Bartoszak said the seller's bank called him to alert him to a suspicious loan application. He called for assistance from the Secret Service and the Florida Division of Financial Crimes.

They quickly discovered that Sekertekin, the buyer, apparently hadn't existed before 2003.

Marc Eichenholtz, the house's owner, did not know of the fraud and is not being charged with any crime, the detective said.

Bartoszak said Sekertekin has already secured nearly $2-million in loans from banks in at least two other states, probably through fraudulent applications. He said he won't be surprised if authorities discover more crooked deals by the pair. "This case is still red-hot," he said.

Michael A. Mohammed can be reached at mmohammed@sptimes.com or 813 226-3404.

[Last modified December 15, 2006, 05:50:24]