Pedro Ruz Gutierrez | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted July 14, 2006
The wife of a Central Florida home builder was arrested Thursday after a federal grand jury indicted the couple on conspiracy and fraud charges.
John Barrington
Deanna Barrington, 44, wife of John Barrington, pleaded not guilty at an initial appearance before federal Magistrate David Baker, who ordered her release on $250,000 bond. She was arrested at the couple's Ocoee home by IRS and FBI agents.
She had been running the troubled Barrington Homes Inc. after her husband's arrest in May on a money-laundering charge. In that case, John Barrington is accused of soliciting a drug dealer and offering to launder drug proceeds through his business.
John Barrington, 44, who was born John Stuart Jakows, started his home-building business in July 2002, a few weeks after his release from a state prison.
By legally changing his name later that year, he hid his criminal past from lenders and clients. He is a felon on state supervision with a record dating to 1990. His arrests and convictions include counts of grand theft, mortgage fraud and forgery in Orange, Seminole and Volusia counties.
The couple's company has been in trouble for several months. In late May, just after John Barrington's first indictment, his wife fired all company employees before it closed its doors.
A 39-page indictment, returned by a federal grand jury Wednesday, accused the couple of misleading R-G Crown Bank as well as buyers and investors at three of the company's developments.
They are Paradiso Park, an Apopka-area subdivision off Vick Road; Riverside Estates near Kissimmee; and The Colonies, a proposed townhouse project off Goldenrod Road.
The couple lured home buyers into making deposits while investors sent funds to buy "shares" after being promised annual returns of up to 70 percent, the indictment says. Instead, authorities say, some of the money was used by the couple for personal expenses.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg wrote that the couple mailed copies of John Barrington's resume to investors that "falsely represented he was a building contractor/developer with extensive experience in residential and commercial real estate."
The fraud included bogus letters of reference that falsely claimed Barrington worked on past projects for Goodings, Publix, Winn-Dixie and Lowe's, Handberg wrote.
Deanna Barrington could not be reached for comment Thursday. Her husband, who has been held without bail at the Orange County Jail since his May 3 arrest, awaits an arraignment in federal court next week.
Pedro Ruz Gutierrez can be reached at
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or 407-420-5620.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-mdeveloper1406jul14,0,1988899.story
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