Couple Convicted of Selling Florida Sinkhole Home
Source: ABC News
Couple Convicted of Selling Florida Sinkhole Home
By ABC NEWS Oct 9, 2015, 6:44 PM ET
A Florida couple is facing up to 20 years each in prison today for selling their home without informing the buyers about an enormous sinkhole that they knew was underneath it.
On Thursday, a federal jury in Tampa, Florida, decided that Glenn Jasen and wife Kathryn Jasen, of Spring Hill, Florida, were guilty of wire fraud, which is a federal felony.
Prosecutors alleged in the case that the Jasens "did detect a sinkhole" in 2009, filed a claim with their insurer and then "elected to receive a check in the amount of $153,000 but did not ever fix the sinkhole."
According to the US Attorney's Office, the Jasens deposited the insurance check into a bank account. They then failed to disclose the sinkhole in real estate documents and later sold the home to another family, according to the indictment.
In court, US attorney Tom Palermo told the jury that "the defendants put lipstick on a pig and sold it to suckers."
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