Former Marco businessman pleads to federal mortgage fraud charge

FORT MYERS — A Marco Island businessman facing state charges involving shady mortgage deals pleaded guilty Friday to an unrelated federal mortgage fraud charge.

Douglas Lee Carter Sr., 64, who now lives in East Naples, pleaded to filing a false mortgage application as part of a plea deal that drops two counts of wire fraud. Carter, who was indicted in September, was set for trial next week in U.S. District Court in Fort Myers.

No sentencing date has been set. He faces up to 30 years in a federal prison without parole, followed by up to five years of supervised release, and a $1 million fine. Carter is represented by Russell K. Rosenthal, a federal public defender, who negotiated the plea with Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Molloy.

Carter was the man behind many real estate deals on Marco Island that prompted a 2007 indictment involving 31 people — homeowners, mortgage companies, appraisers, real estate agents, bankers and straw buyers — who artificially inflated home prices and pocketed the difference. Many of the homes went into foreclosure.

Since 1984, Carter’s land deals have led to mortgage foreclosures and judgments totaling more than $30 million. He’s been sued many times and served time in federal prison from 1992 to 1996 for a marijuana dealing conviction. He’s currently serving seven years of probation for interstate forgery out of Georgia.

Under the plea, Carter admitted that on March 2, 2006, he closed on a home on 102nd Ave. North in Naples Park, agreeing to pay Alan and Jane Lantieri $600,000. When he applied for a $540,000 loan, he lied on a Housing and Urban Development statement, saying there was only a $60,000 second mortgage loan on the property, although there was a third $90,000 mortgage from the Lantieris.

He never satisfied the mortgage with the lender and the house went into foreclosure. It’s now valued at $207,000.

That was just one count in the indictment, which also accused Carter of posing as a lender called Unlimited Expectations LLC and asking for $54,000 on March 2, 2006, from a California broker attempting to buy a home for a man on 102nd Avenue North in Naples Park. Carter never applied for the loan and used the money.

In September 2006, the indictment says, a California lender wired him $572,000 for a home at Kings Lake Boulevard in East Naples. When he applied for a loan, Carter didn’t mention a $147,766.47 mortgage on the property, then defaulted.

In May 2009, the indictment says, a Washington man wired him $24,000 and a California man wired him $30,000 for property deals, but he put the money in his bank account.

In Collier Circuit Court, Carter is charged with obtaining property by fraud totaling $50,000 or more, a first-degree felony, and three charges of obtaining goods and services with worthless checks totaling more than $10,000, third-degree felonies. He faces up to 30 years on the top charge and is to return to court May 3.