Real estate developer sentenced in $2.7M mortgage scheme

PLANT CITY — Real estate developer Marek Harrison, of Plant City, has been sentenced to 20 months in federal prison for a mortgage fraud scheme uncovered by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the FBI. He has also been ordered to pay more than $2.7 million in restitution to financial institutions that were defrauded.

Harrison, 56, pled guilty to bank fraud charges on Nov. 27, according to a press release. The scheme he created and executed in 2007-08 involved Saratoga Resort Villas in Kissimmee, a hotel that had been converted to a condominium complex.