Area broker charged in advance fee for loan scam — again

A Hendry County loan broker has been arrested for her role in an alleged fraudulent advance fee for loan scheme connected to a Fort Myers brokerage office — her second loan scam arrest in the past decade.

The broker, Sammie Sue Doss, has been charged with grand theft, fraudulent use of personal identifying information and violating Florida’s loan broker laws. Victim losses are estimated to be more than $17,000, according to a statement from the Florida Office of Financial Regulation. The OFR investigated the case, and the Hendry County Sheriff’s Office executed the arrest warrant, the statement adds.

Doss allegedly assessed and collected advance fees based on promises of securing mortgage loans. The loans never materialized, authorities contend in the release, “and some victims claim Doss further pressured them to make additional payments.”

Doss, using the alias “Sammie Trevino,” was also a named respondent in an OFR examination of a licensed mortgage broker business operating as AA Signature Mortgage Inc. in Fort Myers, officials say. The OFR terminated AA Signature Mortgage Inc.’s license as a result of the examination.

In 2011, as a result of an OFR and Collier County Sheriff’s Office investigation, Doss pled no contest to a third-degree felony charge for a similar advance fee for loan scheme. She was sentenced to a year of probation and ordered to pay restitution and fee, the release states.

“Fraud can ruin lives and it’s especially awful when it’s committed by a trusted financial advisor,” Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis says in the statement. “Thank you to OFR for their diligence in rooting out fraud throughout the state of Florida. Also, thank you to the Hendry County Sheriff’s Office and State Attorney’s Office, 20th Judicial Circuit, for all you do to keep Florida’s communities safe. I hope this arrest serves as a warning to other criminals that if they commit fraud in Florida, they will be held accountable.”