Twin Cities house flipper gets nearly 5 years in prison for fraud scheme
MINNEAPOLIS -- A Twin Cities house flipper was sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $1.6 million in restitution for her role in an investor fraud scheme.
Suzanne Griffiths, 46, defrauded people by soliciting investments in her Minnesota-based house-flipping business; she lied about the status of real estate projects, failed to take promised action, and falsified documents, the U.S. Attorney General's Office said.
In one case, Griffiths solicited a $100,000 investment from someone to finance the renovation of a property and told them that they would hold the second position on the mortgage. But she never filed the mortgage documents and the investor ended up losing their entire investment.
She pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, and was sentenced on Friday.
