Hyattsville Man to be Sentenced Friday in Real Estate Scheme

A 41-year-old Hyattsville man is scheduled to be sentenced May 3 in a scheme to defraud DC homeowners out of their properties. Three others involved in the plot also have pleaded guilty.

Michael Brown plead guilty in February, along with Jamaul Robert, 35, of College Park; Patricia Mantilla, 35, of Lorton, VA; and Melissa McWilliams, 35, of Chantilly, VA.

Brown recruited straw sellers to sign documents and falsely act like the property owners, according to the State's Attorney's office in Virginia. Most of the victim's were elderly or the heirs of those owners who had recently died.

Roberts, according to court records, identified homes with overdue tax bills and using sites like Ancestry.com and the city's property tax database they tried to take over DC home titles without the owner's knowledge.

Mantilla and McWilliams were the settlement agents and also falsified documents.

The scheme cost their victims more than $1 million.

Read more about the case on the U.S. Department of Justice's website.