Fraud by the book

In December 2003, Matthew Cox disappeared from his hometown of Tampa. Former business acquaintances, like Scott Cugno, were perplexed.

Scott Cugno, former business partner: He had 60 properties at that time, give or take, that he owned.

Keith Morrison, Dateline correspondent: That’s a lot to abandon.

Cugno: Yes.

But his former partner-in-crime Alison Arnold knew exactly what had happened.

Alison Arnold: When I found out that he went on the run, I wanted to die inside because I knew everything was gonna be exposed.

Or would it? After all, Cox’s new confederate, Rebecca Hauck was willing to do whatever Alison was not. And especially, to leave her son, 13-year-old Bryce and go on the run.

Rebecca Hauck: Bryce was actually going to visit my mom for Christmas, so I’d already gotten him a ticket to go.

Morrison: So when you took him to the airport…

Hauck: Oh it was horrible. I was just crying. I wouldn’t let him go. He’s like, “I’ll be back in two weeks.” Wat’s going on you know? Because I was so upset.

Morrison: You knew he was going, maybe forever? And you were prepared to do that?

Hauck: Well I was under the impression that I would get to see him.

Days after they left Tampa, a hard-hitting expose, outlining some of Cox’s alleged swindles, appeared in the St. Petersburg Times, headlined ‘Dubious Deals.’

All those dozens of properties, and so much more about Matthew Cox were not all that they seemed.

Law enforcement went into gear.  Warrants were issued. But a manhunt?  No.

And nobody in Tampa had the slightest idea that Matthew Cox and Rebecca Hauck were in Atlanta. And soon, they were setting up shop in another apartment building.

Hauck: We had to get new identities so we just went to dinner one night, made up a name.

She became Grace Hudson. And Cox? Well, he drove across the border to Alabama, walked into this DMV, and the dyslexic artist who’d developed an amazing ability to copy signatures doctored a few documents and transformed himself into, shall we say, an old friend…

Cugno: I couldn’t believe that this was happening!

Cox, it turns out, had volunteered to handle Scott Cugno’s mortgage a couple years earlier. And now to his horror Cugno discovered his former friend had used all that precious and secret personal information for his own dirty work.

Cugno: He took my identity and bought houses—a car, and some credit cards…

Morrison: How much did he steal using your name?

Cugno: I think it’s like $50,000. This was his way of playing a game.

And the game was on. Rebecca was getting a crash-course in fraud. Her first assignment? That book Cox had written, “The Associates.”

From Cox's novel: Anyone can steal money and run but disappearing forever is extremely difficult. They’d need driver’s licenses and credit cards.

Morrison: Did you know that he had written a book?

Hauck: No. And when I read it, I was just floored. I couldn’t believe it. As we got on the run together, I saw how he did things. And it all referenced back to how the book was.

'THIEF OF HEARTS' More on Matthew Cox's fraud by the book Read an excerpt of Cox's manuscript  Keith Morrison blogs See some of Cox's murals and art Tips on spotting mortgage fraud Producer Shane Bishop blogs

And here is precisely what the “hero” does in Matthew’s book: First, with his female accomplice, he rents a home, just like this one they did rent in an Atlanta suburb. Next, the fictional character opened accounts at several banks in the area  to launder the cash that was to come. Cox did just that. Then, just as his character had, Cox forged a document and filed it at the courthouse, claiming the mortgage on the home was paid off.

Hauck: Then he’d start hitting high-end lenders and telling them he owned the property free and clear.

Lenders like John Holman had no idea he was playing the part of the fictional dupe.

John Holman: I loaned this fellow over $100,000 on a home that it turns out he didn’t own.

A private investor named Sam Dobrow also made a loan.

Morrison: You’ve lost something like $75,000- 80,000?

Sam Dobrow: Right. And my partner’s who in this with me has another $50,000.

With house after house, records would reveal, the plan he’d dreamed up in a story, worked to perfection in real life.

They hit Tallahassee, where Rebecca got more involved. Now it was she who claimed to own a house.  She went to the closing, under another stolen identity.

Morrison: Was there some point at which he said, “Okay, you’re in it as deep as I am”?

Hauck: Mm-hmm. On our drive home he’s like, “well, you’re in it. You’ve done it.”

Morrison: So now you’re Bonnie of Bonnie and Clyde?

Hauck: Yeah, I guess.

They felt untouchable, Even slipping out of the country for a trip to Jamaica, where pictures of them were taken. They seemed like a couple of carefree Americans on holiday.

But as she got in deeper, things began to change. Even before Jamaica, the romance had cooled. Cox, who at 5’6 could never be mistaken for Brad Pitt or George Clooney, began belittling Rebecca.

Hauck: He would tell me, you’d be perfect if you just had some plastic surgery done -breast implants.

Morrison: But you didn’t want breast implants right?

Hauck: No, not really.

But implants she got a $15,000 job at a plastic surgery center outside Atlanta.

Morrison: Then why’d you do it?

Hauck: Beause I wanted him to want me. Because he kept telling me he wasn’t physically attracted to me. Everything I tried to do was trying to make him want to be with me.

Morrison: But?

Hauck: No still no. I just was flabbergasted. What do I have to do? I gave up my family, my life, my kid you know? I had plastic surgery. What do I have to do to show you how much you mean to me, when you’re telling me I’m never gonna be good enough for you?

Morrison: Why didn’t you walk away?

Hauck: I was afraid.

But, if she was in some ways trapped in this cage, it was certainly a gilded one...

Morrison: So you lived in a great apartment?

Hauck: MM-hmm. I drove a G-35 Infiniti.

Morrison: Great clothes, make up, hair? nails done?

Hauck: Yes, exactly. I had everything.

But slowly, Rebecca Hauck was coming to realize that despite all the trappings—life in the shadows, always looking over her shoulder, was not so glamorous after all. And things were heating up: Atlanta-area lenders who’d been stiffed began alerting authorities about Cox’s schemes.

Gale McKenzie, assistant U.S. attorney, Atlanta: The number of victims, the number of stolen identities used, the number of prior mortgages that are erased—all of that makes this case very unique.

Morrison: Now this guy was good!

McKenzie: Very good!  Once were within three weeks of capturing him… we were that close.

The Feds seized bank accounts, and they say they grabbed several hundred thousand dollars of Cox’s ill-gotten gains.

Morrison: Before he had a chance to get at it?

McKenzie: Before he had a chance to launder it yes.

Morrison: So he would’ve known you were pretty close at that point?

McKenzie: He knew we were very close at that point.

News stories began to appear, describing a slash-and-burn mortgage march through Atlanta by the fugitives.

Hauck: My picture was everywhere on the news. And I got really scared then. I’m like, “No no no no no—I can’t do this anymore.” And I told him that night, I’m like, “I gotta go.” And I had a panic attack and I freaked out. And he grabbed me by the throat, threw me on the ground, and started choking me saying “You’re not gonna get me caught! Be quiet! You’re not gonna get me caught!” And that was the first time it scared me.

And yet, once again, Matthew Cox gave his pursuers the slip. He and Rebecca headed north to Columbia, South Carolina, where with a new, stolen identity -Gary Sullivan—he bought another house.

Dr. Bruce Brown: In our case he closed on six loans in the span of few days on our property, and another house closed on five to six loans within the span of a week.

Dr. Bruce Brown and his wife were leaving the Army, selling their first home when they met Cox.

Morrison: So we’re talking about a dozen closings in a week?

Brown: All with separate attorneys, separate real estate agents—

Morrison: And different identities in many of ‘em?

Brown: Different identities.

Novel: The prankster in Christian couldn’t help but add a flair to the forgeries.

So brazen was Cox that on one mortgage he even was said to have signed the name ‘C. Montgomery Burns,’ — a character from the TV show, “The Simpsons.”

Was it arrogance, hubris? Maybe it was simple karma, then... that the luck which greased this long string of scams was about to run out..

Hauck: He called me and said, you may have to be on your own. I’ve just been picked up.

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