Former real estate agent sentenced to 10 years in prison

SAN ANTONIO – Several former clients testified Monday during sentencing and explained how former real estate agent Cynthia Ortiz would collect cash, make promises and never deliver.

Since 2010, Ortiz, 41, had been making fraudulent real estate deals with clients on a variety of transactions according to testimony.

“Every time she asked for money saying we were going to close next month, then the next month,” Rafael Aleman testified.  “We are going to close and the house will be yours she would say and every time she asked for more money.”

He said that he lost of $13,000 over a five-year period.

Refugio Ramos testified that after he inherited a home, and the mortgage, from his father, she promised to re-negotiate the deal seeking a lower interest rate.

She would charge him $850 a month, he said, but did nothing.

“Many Sundays she would call saying, ‘Mr. Ramos, we need more money or they are going to foreclose you on your house.’”

After five years, he said, they did foreclose and he lost the home and $25,000 that he had paid Ortiz.

“You have people’s lives that you’ve completely ruined, 290th District Court Judge Melisa Skinner told Ortiz she, “Completely ruined multiple people’s lives.”

Skinner ordered Ortiz to prison for 10 years.