Ex-Sisters Realtor pleads guilty, sentenced in forgery

A former Sisters Realtor pleaded guilty to first-degree forgery Wednesday and was sentenced to two years probation, three days in jail and community service for her role in mortgage and rental fraud schemes, but another person charged in the crimes is on the run, Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel said.

Michelle Marie Anderson, 40, who was a licensed Realtor with Artisan Realty Group in Sisters, entered the plea in Deschutes County Circuit Court.

(Hummel noted the woman is not the Michele Anderson — note the different first-name spelling — who is a Realtor with Cascade Sotheby’s in Bend.)

Hummel said Anderson’s prosecution resulted from a several-month investigation by his office, the sheriff’s office and the Oregon Department of Consumer & Business Services-Finance & Corporate Securities Division.

The investigation uncovered an ongoing mortgage fraud scheme, implemented by Mark Franklin Broeg., 60, and involving Anderson, the DA said. According to state investigators, Broeg created a fictitious business, McCoy Capitals, which he used in an attempt to obtain fraudulent loans and illegal commissions, while posing as a mortgage broker.

These illegal business activities included attempts to fraudulently purchase both residential and development properties in Deschutes County, valued in total over $5 million, Hummel said.

Anderson obtained the assistance of Broeg in one transaction, in which she attempted to complete a fraudulent home purchase.

Broeg is charged with seven felony counts, including racketeering, mortgage fraud and other theft-related charges. He failed to appear for trial in April and the court issued an arrest warrant, Hummel said.

At the time of her arrest last year, Anderson was charged with several felony counts of theft of services, attempted aggravated theft, forgery and negotiating a bad check.

The DA said Wednesday a condition of his resolution of the cases against Anderson was that she never again work as a real estate agent.

Along with an order to surrender her real estate license, Circuit Judge Wells Ashby sentenced Anderson to 24 months of probation, 160 hours of community service, three days in jail and payment of restitution to her victims.

“Real estate is a backbone of the Central Oregon economy,” Hummel said in a news release. “On behalf of our community’s hundreds of honest and hardworking real estate professionals; thousands of real estate investors; and hundreds of thousands of homeowners and tenants, all of whom rely and depend on our real estate professionals to be ethical and law-abiding, your district attorney’s office will continue to root out fraud in the real estate industry and hold offenders accountable.”