TALLAHASSEE, FL – Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that a former New York City resident was convicted of organized scheme to defraud for her participation in a mortgage fraud operation. Melissa Sabrina Miranda was sentenced to three years in prison, to be followed by 10 years probation, and must pay $1.4 million in restitution to multiple lenders in South Florida. She is also banned from the real estate licensure business. The case was prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.

Miranda, 28, was an unlicensed mortgage broker who defrauded lenders into paying inflated loans on five Florida properties located in Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties. She and a co-defendant perpetrated the scheme for just over one year. The case was investigated by the Department of Financial Services and Division of Insurance Regulation.

Co-defendant Arturo Ildefonso, also recently of New York, was also charged with organized scheme to defraud and was sentenced earlier this month to 18 months in prison, to be followed by 10 years of probation. Both Ildefonso and Miranda were extradited from New York and must also reimburse the state the costs of investigation and prosecution. Today’s sentence was returned by Judge Andrew Siegel of the 17th Judicial Circuit.