Matthew Cox

Matthew Bevan Cox (born July 2, 1969) is an American former mortgage broker, admitted mortgage fraudster, con man, and true crime author who has written several stories paralleling his real life crimes.

Cox falsified documents to make it appear that he owned properties, and then fraudulently obtained several mortgages on them for five to six times their actual worth. He acquired millions of dollars this way; estimates report the amount at between US$15 million and $55 million. Cox's first conviction occurred in 2002 when he was sentenced to probation for mortgage fraud. He then sold the mortgage company he owned in a Tampa, Florida-area firm. He began his life as a dedicated criminal in central Florida after that offense, before fleeing the area when his activities were discovered. His crime spree continued across the southern and southwestern United States, eventually landing him on the United States Secret Service's Most Wanted list. He was aided by several female accomplices, some of whom are in prison or have served time there for their participation in his fraudulent mortgage practices. Cox was arrested on November 16, 2006. Indicted on 42 counts, and facing prison sentences of up to 125 years, he plea bargained his sentence down to a maximum of 54 years on April 11, 2007, and was sentenced to 26 years on November 17, 2007. He was released from prison in July 2019.

Cox is currently a full time true crime author, podcaster, a keynote speaker. He lives and works in central Florida.

His story is well chronicled and has been featured on Dateline NBC, CNBC's American Greed, in Fortune magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, Playboy magazine, and other media outlets.

Early life Born in Florida, Cox struggled in school due to severe dyslexia. His teachers advised him to get a job in which he worked with his hands, so he studied sculpture at the University of South Florida, and majored in art. Cox took a job as an insurance agent after college, but his income disappointed him, and he sought out higher-paying work. While there he developed a reputation for unscrupulousness, which was heightened by his authorship of an unpublished 317-page manuscript entitled The Associates. The novel's protagonist, who shares many traits in common with Cox, travels the country committing mortgage fraud. Cox told co-workers about the book, and elaborated its details to them. According to a former co-worker: "He sent it to a lot of people to see if they thought it worked." In one instance he used the social security number of a toddler, and all of his documents—references, bank letters, rent receipts, W-2s from nonexistent employers—were counterfeit. Cox took advantage of the Hillsborough County school district by selling it a property for much more than its appraised value, and arranged financing on a $90,000 house for future Florida Representative Janet Cruz. He recorded that sale for $233,000, and hired Cruz to do some rezoning research. Cruz claims she was unaware he inflated the sale price, and that she was never paid for her research.

When a female accomplice rented a house in Pinellas County as part of Cox's schemes, then faked ownership of the property, the owner found out about the fraud. A title company manager had become suspicious of a loan Cox's accomplice was applying for on the house and called the property's real owner. The Clearwater Police department was contacted, and they began an investigation.

Cox and Arnold grew apart and eventually Cox began courting another woman. She had already committed criminal offenses before meeting Cox, and was fired from a job in Las Vegas for forging her employer's name on checks that she used to pay her debts. After finding out that Jeff Testerman, a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times, was investigating him, Cox and Hauck left town. Two days later, on December 14, 2003, the newspaper published Testerman's story, "Dubious Housing Deals Line Avenue".

The story detailed Urban Equities Inc., an investment company started by Cox. Despite her involvement in the purchase or sale of 58 properties in six years, she claimed that she and the other remaining shareholder were "incapable of operating or managing Urban Equity", so the company was put into receivership. His partners claimed to be unaware of Cox's dealings, and they were financially ruined by the collapse of the company.

Crime spree across the southern states Cox and Hauck fled to Atlanta and settled there. During this period, he traveled to Mobile, Alabama, and using the identity of a former co-worker, acquired credit cards and the credit needed to rent a home. After filing false documents that indicated he owned the house, Cox took out mortgages on the property for several hundred thousand dollars. He took out one mortgage under the name of The Simpsons character "C. Montgomery Burns". News broadcasts showed photos of Cox and Hauck and requested that viewers provide any information pertaining to their whereabouts. By spring 2005, the couple had eluded authorities for eighteen months, using dozens of identities, including ones stolen from former co-workers and acquaintances. Cox also stole identities from the homeless by posing as a survey–taking Red Cross worker to acquire their social security numbers. At this point, due to remorse and anxiety, Arnold called the FBI and confessed. She was sentenced to two years in prison for numerous offenses, including conspiracy to commit bank fraud and identity theft. Arnold was also ordered to pay $300,000 in restitution to her victims. Shortly thereafter, Cox filed multiple mortgages on two houses for $886,318 in Columbia, South Carolina in less than a week. An abstractor noticed this, and a fraud alert was issued on one of Cox's money-laundering bank accounts. He was arrested when he returned to the bank to make a transaction, but he told authorities his name was "Gary Lee Sullivan", one of about thirty aliases Cox had at the time; because "Sullivan" had no open warrants, the police released him. Shortly afterwards, Cox and Hauck moved to Houston, but they separated and she remained there in hiding under an assumed name. A year later the Secret Service found Hauck and arrested her. In May 2006, after being on the run from authorities for two and a half years, Cox was placed on the Secret Service's Most Wanted Fugitives List. He was dating a single mother, Amanda Gardner, who was unaware of his criminal past, and posing as the owner of a home restoration business. Cox used a falsified passport to travel to Europe on a cruise of the Greek Isles with Gardner. He did not spend much time in Italy or Greece due to his intense fear of Interpol. He temporarily escaped capture due to a chance series of events. Cox and Gardner's home was burglarized, and they checked into a hotel. On November 16, 2006, Cox was arrested by a half dozen Secret Service agents—who had been pursuing him for more than two years—when he and Gardner returned from the hotel.

Prison Cox faced 42 counts of fraud, in addition to felony charges for fleeing while on probation from a previous conviction. he negotiated a plea bargain agreement that gave him a maximum of 54 years, and a $2 million fine. On April 10, 2007; Cox formally pleaded guilty to six counts of bank fraud, identity theft, passport fraud, conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud, and violating the terms of his probation from his 2002 mortgage fraud conviction. On November 17, 2007, federal judge Timothy Batten sentenced Cox to 26 years in prison. He also ordered Cox to pay $5.97 million in restitution. and possibly more than $25 million. He is believed to have fraudulently mortgaged more than 100 properties. Cox was ordered to serve a 26-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI), a low-security facility in Coleman, Florida. He was ordered to pay $5.97 million in restitution and required to testify against his co-conspirators.

As of 2010, the United States Attorney's office has not brought charges against any of his 13 Tampa-area cohorts, even though Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert A. Mosakowski informed a judge in 2005 that he planned to bring charges against up to 13 accomplices.

While in prison, Cox mailed several letters to the St. Petersburg Times in 2008 in which he accused politician Kevin White of taking bribes from him during Cox's criminal career. He claims he made payoffs to White, an ultimately successful candidate for the Tampa City Council, in 2002 and 2003. Cox said White told him he could not receive the money directly, and suggested that Cox have friends donate $500 each, and then reimburse them.

Records and statements from those who donated show that Cox did in fact make numerous contributions to White's campaign, and reimbursed others who did so as well. White, he claims, agreed to vote to rezone vacant properties in Tampa and Ybor City. When Cox was first arrested, the FBI talked to him about White, whom they were also investigating, and he told them the same information. He claimed to have paid him $7,000 in cash in addition to the recorded contributions he arranged. White has denied that he knew these contributions were reimbursed, and called Cox's accusations "the jailhouse ramblings of a reputed con man."

Cox had fled the Tampa area before White cast any rezoning votes, so there is no voting record which could help confirm the validity of his accusations. In 2012, White, who had gone on to serve as Hillsborough County Commissioner, was convicted of unrelated federal bribery and corruption charges and sentenced to three years in federal prison.

During his time in prison, Cox introduced himself to arms trader Efraim Diveroli after reading a Rolling Stone article on him, and encouraged him to write a memoir. Diveroli agreed to let Cox write the memoir, as he had "boxes of evidence" under his bed while fighting his own trial. When Diveroli left the complex, he took the manuscript with him and Cox claims to not have been compensated for it since; the two are in a mediated settlement process. After writing this memoir, other inmates approached Cox to write their stories, resulting in a number of true crime manuscripts being written by Cox in prison.

He was released from federal prison on July 19, 2019.

Unpublished novel Authorities were amazed by the similarities between Cox's actual crimes and his unpublished manuscript, The Associates, which they found several years before Cox was arrested. The character then opens accounts at several banks in the area so that he can use them for money laundering purposes, which Cox did.

Works Books Once a Gun Runner...: The Efraim Diveroli Memoir (2016)

Generation Oxy: From High School Wrestlers to Pain Pill Kingpins (2017)

BENT: How a Homeless Teen Became One of the Cybercrime Industry's Most Prolific Counterfeiters (2018)

It's Insanity: The Bizarre Story of Dr. Patch Adams' Quest for Universal Health Care and Megalomaniacs' Scheme for World Domination (2020)

Shark in the Housing Pool: Law, Economics and Major League Baseball (2020)

The Program: A True Story of Murder, Money, and a Taste of Corruption (2020)

Devil Exposed: A Twisted Tale of Drug Trafficking, Corruption and Murder in the City of Angels (2021)

Bailout: Corruption, Greed and Murder in the Tampa Bay Housing Market (2021)