PRESS
“Cox, one of the most prolific con artists of all time… he took out $12 million in mortgages from some of America’s biggest banks.”—CNBC's American Greed
“He understood intimately what it took to qualify for a loan . . . Cox took out $3.7 million in mortgages, ensnared at least 10 different lenders. Using nearly a dozen stolen identities . . . [He was] the mortgage industry's worst nightmare… Welcome to the dark side of the housing boom and an unprecedented wave of fraud.”—Bloomberg Businessweek
“Cox was a gifted forger and silver-tongued liar who talked his way out of police custody at least once.”—Dateline NBC
“Cox and Hauck disappeared from Georgia last summer, then resurfaced in Columbia S.C., for more of the same—using false ID’s and forged documents and setting up a phony loan company to snare more than $1 million in fraudulent loans.”—The Chicago Tribune
“ID theft ‘poster child’ . . . He assumed nearly 50 identities. He was a master at obtaining driver’s licenses, credit cards and bank statements in other people’s names.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Federal agents say [Matthew Cox and Rebecca Hauck] are behind the scam. The two have swindled more than $4 million from home owners.”—NBC News 11
“A minimum of $40 million in fraudulent mortgages flowed through Cox's brokerage business during his tenure.”—The Scotsman’s Guide
“They used stolen identities to obtain licenses, purchase vehicles, lease mail drops, rent apartments and open accounts to receive proceeds from their schemes in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina.”—The Associated Press
“Cox stalked his prey through MLS real estate ads . . . studied county court records, looking for ones he could easily dupe with falsified documents.”—Fortune
“Green . . . paid double or triple the market value. He signed for five mortgage loans totaling nearly a million dollars . . . made a few payments. Then, he disappeared.”—The St. Petersburg Times
“He created nonexistent borrowers complete with 700-plus credit scores . . . phony companies that supplied fake paystubs and tax documents for straw borrowers pulled from thin air.”—The Scotsman Guide
“Cox [committed] more than $11 million in fraud involving more than 100 properties… forgery, fraud, and identity theft.”—The Tampa Tribune
“Cox crisscrossed the United States, hustling home owners and banks for as much as $26 million.”—Playboy
“Cox promised residents a revitalization of Nashville’s Napier community . . .[He] cheated lenders out of $2 million instead.”—The Nashville News
“The guy was good, very good. Nothing deterred him, stops by law enforcement didn’t . . . Even after being questioned by detectives [in a South Carolina bank], Cox didn’t run, he went to several other banks and emptied accounts . . . He put a new twist on the classic property flip [and] he made millions and millions and millions.”—Assistant U.S. Attorney Gale McKenzie
“Cox was a master at creating new identities . . . he recognized the weaknesses in the real estate system and figured out how to profit from them.”—Michael Markham, Real Estate Attorney
“The scope, complexity and nefariousness of Cox’s fraud are breathtaking.”—U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Batten, Sr.
“I’m going on twenty years as a federal public defender, and I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anyone quite as imaginative as him.”—Millie Dunn, Federal Public Defender
“[Cox] used software to generate phony appraisals, create phony companies to supply fake pay stubs and income tax statements for straw borrowers that he employed or invented out of thin air.”—Assistant U.S. Attorney Gale McKenzie
“Master con men like Cox are charming, manipulative and cunning. They have an amiable facade, which makes them very adept at getting others to like them.”—Louis B. Schlesinger, Professor of forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York