Real estate agent arrested for fraud

Orange County investigators arrested a Central Florida real estate agent on a fraud charge Wednesday morning.

According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Vinay and Nimisha Patel entered into a real estate contract in the fall of 2007 for the purchase of a commercial building in Daytona Beach through their realtor, Arif Zaheer.

Reports say the contract was for an initial purchase price of $1,750,000.00. Reports say an initial $50,000.00 deposit was provided by the Patels and subsequently an additional $387,500.00 was provided to Remax Vista and or Vista Horizons (Zaheer’s real estate office).

After numerous contract extensions, the sale did not go through and on or about August 2008, reports say. The Patels signed a release and cancellation of contract to obtain their escrow money back, reports say. After not receiving a response from Zaheer, the Patels contacted the seller’s realtor and were advised that the property had already sold, reports say.

Reports say Zaheer requested to pay them back in monthly increments, to which the Patels said no. Zaheer wired $20,150.00 to the Patels and provided them with several checks to pay for the remainder balance, reports say. Zaheer’s account did not have enough funds to cover said checks, thus depriving the Patels of a total of $392,350.00, reports say.