A California man who flipped properties for a living was indicted for defrauding lenders over a six-year span.
According to the indictment, Steven Taylor of Brentwood used fake bank statements and false cash representations to obtain loans and lines of credit to operate his real estate business between August 2019 to July 2025. Among other uses for the fraud proceeds, Taylor acquired or refinanced properties in the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Westlake, Del Rey, Pico-Union, and Cheviot Hills.
Taylor also is charged with lying to lenders about his intended use of the properties, including lying to the lender funding his purchase of the Cheviot Hills property by falsely claiming he intended to renovate and use the property himself when he contracted to sell the property, which he originally acquired for $11.2 million (obtained with a loan via fake bank statements) to a homeless housing developer purchasing it with public funds from the City of Los Angeles and the State of California for $27.3 million in a double-escrow transaction hidden from the victim lender and others.
Taylor also obtained and kept open lines of credit using fake bank statements and false representations concerning cash deposits, including an unsecured line of credit of approximately $3 million from one victim lender and an additional unsecured line of credit of approximately $1 million from another victim lender.
Taylor, who is currently free on a $3.6 million bond, is charged with seven counts of bank fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, and one count of money laundering. If convicted, he would face a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison for each bank fraud count, up to 10 years in federal prison for the money laundering count, and a mandatory consecutive two-year prison sentence for the aggravated identity theft count.
