More than a year after his conviction in a federal mortgage-fraud case, a former Dixon Realtor was sentenced Tuesday to three years, four months in prison, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.
It marks the second prison stint for Hubert Peter Rotteveel, who previously served time as a convicted bank robber.
Rotteveel, 52, was found guilty in September 2014 of one count of mail fraud in connection with the mortgage scheme, which involved 13 Dixon properties and $7 million in loans authorized for two buyers over a seven-month period.
According to evidence produced in the federal trial, Rotteveel acted as a real estate salesman for the 13 properties, inflating their values and working with loan officers to provide false information to lenders about the income and liabilities of the buyers to induce the lenders to fund loans for the properties.
Rotteveel made the down payments on the homes, including two that he owned and sold, and got that money — and sometimes more — back from the lenders at closing. For most of the transactions, when the sales closed, the escrow officer distributed funds to a bank account in the name of Windmill Properties, a company Rotteveel owned, without disclosing these payments to the lenders.
All 13 properties were used as rentals, with Rotteveel collecting the rents through Windmill Properties and netting more than $300,000 through the sales in seven months, authorities said. According to the indictment, the lenders lost more than $3 million when all 13 properties underwent foreclosure.
Rotteveel was paroled in August from a six-month term in state prison for robbing banks in Woodland and West Sacramento while armed with a BB gun in July 2010. He was arrested in West Sacramento while fleeing on a bicycle, when a dye pack exploded on him in front of responding officers.
It marked a dramatic decline for Rotteveel, who prior to his successful real-estate career — which crumbled during the economic recessing and housing-market crash — worked as general manager of the former Sacramento Knights indoor soccer team. He also was a standout soccer player at Dixon High School and UCLA.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene