United States Attorney James T. Jacks
Northern District of Texas

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2010
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txn/

FEDERAL GRAND JURY INDICTS FORT WORTH, TEXAS, MAN FOR MAIL FRAUD

FORT WORTH, Texas — A federal grand jury has indicted Norris Fisher, 62, most recently of Arlington, Texas, on one count of mail fraud, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. Norris has been in federal custody since his arrest on February 26, 2010, by U.S. Postal Inspectors on a related charged outlined in a federal criminal complaint.

The indictment alleges that from January 2007 to February 26, 2010, when he was arrested, Fisher knowingly and illegally acquired real estate that did not belong to him by creating and filing forged warranty deeds with the Tarrant County Clerk’s office to facilitate the theft of real property from rightful owners. The properties involved in the fraudulent warranty deed transfers were often vacant lots with unpaid back taxes due and/or with weed liens filed against them by the city of Fort Worth.

After identifying a property, Fisher would often file a forged warranty deed transferring the property to a fictitious buyer, forging the signature of the true property owner, and forging the signature and notary stamp affixed to the documents. After forging the deed, Fisher filed it with the Tarrant County Clerk’s Office and once it was on file, the clerk’s office would record it and mail the original file-stamped fraudulent warranty deeds to the name and address designated on the warranty deed. When creating these fictitious property buyers, Fisher used common names such as “Maria Flores” and “Jose Garcia,” believing that it would be more difficult to prove that a buyer was fictitious if they had a common name.

However, to conceal his connection with the initial fraudulent conveyance, and ensure that he would receive the original warranty deeds, Fisher filed change-of-address forms with the U.S. Post Office that caused these warranty deeds to instead be forwarded to a post office box that he had rented. He listed various addresses for his fictitious buyers on the forged warranty deeds. Often, the addresses were out of state because he believed that doing so would make attempts to locate the fictitious buyers more difficult. After Fisher received the fraudulently-obtained deeds, he would create additional fraudulent property transfers from the fictitious buyerto various companies he controlled, such as, Chance Housing Management, Inc., Glidden Development Corp. and KEM Services, Inc. On many occasions, Fisher would then create transfers from one company that he controlled to another company that he controlled, and sometimes made multiple transfers of the stolen properties to conceal his original property theft, and make it less likely that a title search would uncover his crimes. After fraudulently transferring the stolen property several times, Fisher identified real buyers and sold the property to them. These buyers were unaware that Fisher had stolen the properties by forging warranty deeds and had sold/leased the properties’ mineral rights.

According to the affidavit filed with the criminal complaint, Fisher acquired more than 100 real properties in Tarrant County, Texas, valued at more than $1 million.

An indictment is an accusation by a federal grand jury and a defendant is entitled to the presumption of innocence unless proven guilty. A federal complaint is a written statement of the essential facts of the offenses charged, and must be made under oath before a magistrate judge. If convicted, however, Fisher faces a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

While stating that the investigation is ongoing, U.S. Attorney Jacks recognized the investigative efforts of the USPIS and Economic Crimes Unit of the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Weimer is in charge of the prosecution.

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