JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Nearly three years after the I-TEAM began investigating Jacksonville contractor Wyatt Green who was charged with felony fraud, forgery, and grand theft, his case has now ended with a plea deal that will keep him out of jail and without a felony conviction on his record.
As part of his plea deal, Green pleaded guilty Wednesday morning via Zoom to one count of false representation of a licensed contractor, a misdemeanor. As part of the deal, Green will pay a total of $50,000 in restitution to be split among customers that prosecutors identified in this case.
While his sentencing is scheduled for Monday, March 28, he will be given one day in jail with credit for one day time served – about 11 hours he spent behind bars following two different arrests in 2019 related to this case. He will also be required to appear in person for Monday’s sentencing and deliver the $50,000 in restitution to the court. If he fails to pay that money, he could face up to a year in jail. Under the agreement, adjudication of guilt will be withheld on the misdemeanor charge, and he will also owe $323 in court costs.
The I-TEAM has been investigating Green for several years, since the contractor was with Storm Restoration Specialists, LLC, or Storm RS, and his customers reached out to us for help. Prosecutors said Green forged insurance documents and took thousands of dollars from homeowners but failed to complete the work he was paid to do.
Some of Green’s customers – including Hurricane Irma storm victims – tell the I-TEAM they were left with damage they could not afford to pay someone else to fix because their insurance companies had already paid Green.
In April 2019, Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced additional information regarding Green’s initial arrest for allegedly stealing more than $40,000 from consumers who assigned their insurance benefits to him through Assignment of Benefits (AOB) contracts. When a customer signs an AOB, it gives a third party the power to file a claim with an insurance company, make repair decisions, and collect insurance money – without the homeowner’s involvement.
Patronis accused Green and his staff of forging customer signatures on construction documents and insurance claim payment checks that required signatures from both the homeowner and mortgage lender. Patronis said his detectives uncovered that Green and his employees purchased 58 false bank endorsement stamps from a online manufacturer to aid in this scam.
According to Patronis, employees of Green also admitted to allegedly forging customer signatures on construction documents required by counties and municipalities and said in some cases construction work was never completed, while in others, the work never even began. At that time, Green was arrested on charges of organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, and forgery – felonies that could have put him in prison for 35 years if convicted.
When the I-TEAM first confronted Green after his arrest in 2019, he told us “I fully intend to make it right. And any other wrongdoings that I have done, I take full responsibility for.”
A month after Green’s arrest and release on bond, the I-TEAM spotted Green betting thousands of dollars at a local poker room. After we alerted prosecutors to this, they changed Green’s bond conditions to order him to refrain from any form of gambling or games of chance.
Over the years, felony charges have been added for Green, and later updated and consolidated. As of today, his charges were amended to be one single count of felony organized fraud, plus the misdemeanor charge.
But, with Green’s plea deal, customers identified by prosecutors will be paid restitution, he’ll face no additional time behind bars, and the one felony charge left against him will be dropped.
Following the plea agreement, Patronis’ Communications Director Devin Galetta released this statement to the I-TEAM:
“Fraud steals from us all. It’s cases like this that contribute to increasing insurance rates. DFS (Department of Financial Services) has set up more teams to investigate insurance fraud, which means we’ll see more cases like this going to court. We’re thankful to the State Attorney for taking this case up and we’ll keep working with them and the courts to send more fraudsters to jail.”