An Oregon real estate broker pleaded guilty to avoiding reporting requirements and obstruction of justice after her client’s illegal marijuana grow was raided.
According to court documents, Tyra Foxx was a RE/MAX real estate broker for Jose Orozco between January 2020 through November 2020. Foxx assisted Orozco with his purchase of agricultural properties to grow hemp and marijuana.
When Orozco purchased these properties, Foxx made large cash payments to the property owners outside of escrow. While she was aware that RE/MAX did not accept cash payments, she nonetheless converted $100,000 into money orders and used a third-party broker’s trust account to transfer over $2 million dollars into escrow accounts.
On Oct. 13, 2020, Foxx received $175,000 from Orozco to purchase agricultural property in Josephine County, Oregon. Foxx did not file a Form 8300 upon receipt of the funds as required but instead transferred the money to a client trust account at another real estate office. This caused a Currency Transaction Report to be filed in that real estate office’s name rather than Orozco’s name.
After learning that law enforcement had raided one of Orozco’s illegal marijuana sites, Foxx drafted fake property leases for Orozco and suggested he place phony construction liens to be levied on the property to prevent it from being forfeited by the Internal Revenue Service and Homeland Security Investigations.
Foxx was charged on Feb. 23 by an amended superseding information with avoiding reporting requirements and obstruction of justice.
On count one, Foxx faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a $500,000 fine, and three years of supervised release. On count two, Foxx faces 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release. She will be sentenced on May 11.
Orozco previously pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 6.
