Four charged with fraud in Kensington condo case

Kensington of Royal Palm Beach in West Palm Beach
Kensington of Royal Palm Beach in West Palm Beach

A federal judge has formally charged four defendants involved in an alleged $25 million fraud at the Kensington of Royal Palm Beach condominium, according to criminal indictments recently unsealed.

The charges, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, accused a managing member of the Kensington Trust and three other individuals of conspiracy and bank fraud, the Palm Beach Post reported.

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The defendants include Eli Riesel of the Kensington Trust; Rashmi Airan-Pace, an attorney and escrow agent; Jordana Ende Tobel, a realtor and mortgage broker; and Florenco Luis Tezanos, a mortgage consultant at Wells Fargo Bank who was also charged with corrupt acceptance of gifts and commissions.

The indictment alleges the quartet defrauded lenders by failing to disclose that buyers at the West Palm Beach development were paid incentives and by falsifying information on HUD-1 forms. The federal investigation began when a county property appraiser tipped off agents about high-priced flips in 2008, which resulted in a 73 percent foreclosure rate at the building, as previously reported[Palm Beach Post]Angela Hunt