REAL ESTATE CON MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO FELONY THEFT

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announces today the conviction of Robert Franklin Miller, president of the fraudulent real estate and legal businesses that he named “American Funding and Investment Corporation” and “Greater Washington Legal Services.” Miller, age 51, plead guilty to 4 counts of felony theft before the Honorable Judge Dana M. Levitz in Baltimore County Circuit Court. In a statement of facts read into the record, Judge Levitz learned that from the summer of 2001 until the spring of 2002, Miller stole over $14,000.00 from four victims. Miller ran a real estate scheme through advertisements in The Baltimore Sun which targeted people with poor credit. The advertisements claimed that Miller’s company could obtain loans for the purchase of homes for any applicant for $2,500 down. Miller, who falsely represented himself as an attorney and a real estate broker, showed the homes to the victims, signed contracts for the properties, and then took money from the victims as down payments, promising to keep the money in escrow until settlement. Then Miller immediately used the victims’ money for personal expenses such as dry cleaners, liquor store purchases, and dining. Miller was neither an attorney nor a licensed real estate broker, and he provided no real estate services for any of the victims. After spending their money, Miller never contacted the victims again.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Miller can receive up to 12 years incarceration. Sentencing has been scheduled before Judge Levitz for March 16, 2005.

The case was investigated by the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Maryland State Police, and was prosecuted by the Criminal Investigations Division of the Office of the Attorney General.

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