A Lakewood mortgage broker was sentenced Friday to 40 years in prison for bilking investors of millions of dollars.

But for some victims, no amount of years behind bars is enough to punish a man they say took everything they owned. More than 52 victims, many of them seniors, said they lost their homes, their cars, their children's college funds, their retirement funds and even their friends because of Randy Mitchell Romero.



Cezanne and Kelly Cross say they had to forclose on their home after Romero took $600,000 from them over a course of four years, promising big paybacks from loan interests.

"He took our home, our car. He took our retirement," said Cezanne Cross. "At that time, we had no reason to believe otherwise, that he wasn't what he said he was."

The Crosses say Romero sold himself as a Christian man, a friendly man who had earned their trust.

"He really played up the Christian aspect, going to church and all that," said Cezanne Cross.

So they invested their money with the 49-year-old mortgage broker, and his business, American Home Mortgage, only to learn later that they would never see it again.

Following an investigation by the Lakewood Police Department and the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office, Romero and his wife, Lynda, were both indicted in January 2003. On April 8, 2003, Romero pled guilty to two counts of securities fraud.

The Crosses say they learned a very useful lesson the hard way, and next time, they would do it differently.

"I would get more information, probably research a lot more. Not just trust the people I've been dealing with," said Kelly Cross.

The Cross family say they did a background check under Mitch Romero because that's the name Romero used and nothing came up. But if they had searched under Randy Romero, they would've found that he's a convicted felon.

Romero's victims want lawmakers to step in and force mortgage brokers to get licenses and background checks. They say with licensing, Romero's convicted felon record would've raised a red flag.

Colorado currently does not require mortgage brokers to be licensed.

Romero solicited funds by telling investors that the funds would be used as "bridge loans" or as down payments for customers of American Home Mortgage who themselves lacked funds. He promised a very high rate of return (10-20 percent) for the use of these monies for a short period of time.

Most of his clients were given a promissory note or post-dated check as means to recover their investment. American Home Mortgage was formed in 1997 and in the early years, some people did receive a return on their "investment," but more than 50 victims lost $5 million.

Many who invested with Romero had encouraged their family members and friends to similarly invest their money with him.

Lynda Romero has pled not guilty to security fraud and is scheduled for a jury trial on Sept. 7, 2004.

Romero's sentence was aggravated because he was technically on probation for similar charges in a 1993 case. In that case, he pled guilty to three counts of securities fraud.

Article © Anywhere Communications All Rights Reserved