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A $100-million vanishing act

A Florida couple is gone as investigators try to unravel a giant real estate scheme.

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published March 19, 2007

NORTH MIAMI BEACH - Near the hand-painted statues and gilded gold lions, a small bronze sign remains posted above the doorbell.

"WOLF RESIDENCE," it says, in bold block letters.

But Natalia and Victor Wolf no longer live in this five-bedroom South Florida mansion.

They slipped out late one October night, leaving behind ransacked rooms filled with baby bottles and designer furniture. They took their infant daughter, Emily, with them.

Now someone has changed the locks. Unfinished white molding stretches halfway across the gray stucco house.

And the Wolfs are still at the center of a giant real estate fraud investigation that started in Citrus County and could stretch halfway across the world.

For nearly five months, FBI detectives have been investigating Sky Development Group, a company founded by Victor Wolf and registered in state filings to his wife, Natalia.

Allegations include claims that the company forged deeds and sold more than $1-million worth of property it didn't own in Citrus Springs, took millions of dollars for land without turning over the property to the buyers, closed land deals using a fake title company, and took money for new homes it never built or never finished.

Up to $100-million may be at stake.

But investigators are tight-lipped about their progress. An FBI spokeswoman said this week she could only confirm that the investigation is ongoing.

Detectives from the Citrus County Sheriff's Office and the North Miami Beach Police Department said they have turned over their files to the FBI and offered to assist however they can.

They know Natalia Wolf used her passport to enter Germany in October. No charges have been filed and no arrests have been made in the case.

When - or if - anyone connected to the apparent scam will be indicted is unclear.

Victims seek relief

While detectives continue their investigation, many victims are heading to court for help.

Late last month, Peter Mazzarino - the man who first reported problems with Sky Development Group to police - filed a lawsuit against the company.

It's one of more than 40 lawsuits against the developer and its affiliates pending in Citrus, Miami-Dade and Orange counties.

"We're just kind of getting back to a normal life, just kind of waiting to see what happens," said Mazzarino, a 50-year-old locksmith who lives in Coral Springs. "I haven't heard anything from anyone. At this point, it looks like we're on our own."

Files from the FBI's investigation are not public yet, but court records provide a glimpse of how deals with Sky were done:

- State corporate filings list Natalia Wolf as the registered agent for 20 companies. One of them is All Title and Trust, a company that several lawsuits say Sky Development designated to close land deals.

One suit, filed by Camilo Guzman in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in November, includes a copy of instructions for wiring money to All Title and Trust's bank account at a Sunny Isles Beach Wachovia. The suit claims Natalia Wolf instructed Guzman to pay $138,876 to that account for a piece of commercial property in Citrus Springs. But after Guzman paid, the suit claims a deed for the purchase was never recorded.

No record of All Title and Trust exists in the files of the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, which licenses all title companies in the state.

- One of Sky Development's former associates has sued. Irina Zitser, a notary whose signature is on many of the company's property transactions, filed a lawsuit in January in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. The suit claims Natalia Wolf promised in September to pay her $57,500 for property they purchased together in Citrus Springs.

Shortly afterward, Natalia Wolf "fled the country to avoid criminal prosecution for her actions and for allegedly defrauding numerous other individuals out of millions of dollars arising from similar real estate transactions," the suit says.

- One of the state's largest title insurance underwriters, the Attorney's Title Insurance Fund, filed a lawsuit in November claiming Sky Development Group had committed title fraud.

The suit alleges that Sky Development group and its managers "engaged in a plan, scheme, artifice and unlawful conspiracy" in violation of Florida's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act.

It also provides more details about the company's sales practices. Sky marketed lots in Citrus Springs "largely to Russian, Latin and Asian immigrants through, among other things, phone solicitations and the Internet," the suit says. Most of the lots sold for about $30,000 each, according to the complaint.

- Several lawsuits are pending involving property owned by companies registered to Natalia Wolf, including a North Miami Beach condominium and the Eastern Shores home where she and Victor Wolf lived. In a foreclosure lawsuit, lender AG Group Investments claimed a company registered to Natalia Wolf, All Realty Alliance Corp., forged signatures on mortgage documents and violated a mortgage agreement by selling the house in May 2006.

Home was for sale

Meanwhile, the house is empty.

Fallen palm fronds cover the grass. Home improvements are unfinished. Neighbors say a "For Sale" sign was removed from the front lawn earlier this month, but no one has moved in.

A courier has taped a note to Natalia Wolf on the front door.

"Please call," it says.

Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 352 860-7309.

[Last modified March 18, 2007, 19:51:15]