A woman previously convicted of a real estate fraud scheme is now charged, along with her husband and two others, in a similar scam that resulted in the theft of more than $1.4 million over a two-year period, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.
Angela Grace Cotton, 46, her husband, Lawrence Edward Cotton, 52, Denaysha Coleman, 26, and Latrese Gevon Breaux, 46, pleaded not guilty this week to 28 felony counts, including identity theft, forgery, mortgage fraud, grand theft of personal property, attempted grand theft of personal property, money laundering and use of a counterfeit seal.
Angela Cotton is also facing a felony count of possession of a firearm by a felon with four prior convictions, while her husband is charged with an additional count of receiving stolen property exceeding $950 in value.
The charges include sentence-enhancing allegations of fraud and embezzlement resulting in the loss of more than $500,000, taking property exceeding $1.3 million in value and theft of more than $100,000.
Angela Cotton, with help from her co-defendants, used fictitious escrow and title companies she had created to deceive a lending company into believing it was funding two legitimate real estate transactions, Deputy District Attorney Daniel Kinney alleged.
The group is accused of stealing the identities of nine people to facilitate the fictitious real estate sales and creating fraudulent websites, emails and phone networks, along with fake employment documentation and bank account statements from a non-existent financial institution for the buyer, according to Kinney.
The properties for which the group received loans were located in Los Angeles and La Canada Flintridge and had not been listed for sale, the prosecutor said.
Angela Cotton was convicted in March 2010 in federal court for a similar real estate fraud scheme, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
She and her husband — who are due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Dec. 6 — could face up to 22 years and eight months in state prison if convicted as charged, while Coleman and Breaux could face a maximum of 22 years behind bars.