Edwin Eugune Swanson

A land sale scheme tallied at more than $100,000 has resulted in the arrest of a man tracked back to Texas.

A six-month investigation conducted by the Cape Coral Police Department Financial Crimes Unit related to fraudulent sale of vacant land in Cape Coral culminated Wednesday in the arrest of Edwin Eugune Swanson of Houston, Texas, officials said today.

Swanson is accused of selling, or attempting to sell, vacant lots he did not own.

“The investigation by the Financial Crimes Unit found that between January 2020 and December 2020, Edwin Swanson was part of a scheme to defraud multiple victims of their property,” a release from the CCPD states. “Detectives found that Swanson used the personal information of each landowner to impersonate them and attempt to, or successfully sell their vacant lots. During this scheme, Swanson sold or attempted to sell multiple vacant lots that could have resulted in a loss of well over $100,000 to the victims. Due to his actions throughout this scheme, Swanson was able to sell a victim’s property and received the proceeds of the sale.”

CCPD detectives worked with local Realtors and title companies to gather evidence and, after combing through voluminous amounts of records, Swanson was identified as a suspect, officials said.

Detectives also requested assistance with Houston Police Department to gather additional evidence, which ultimately resulted in a warrant being issued for Swanson’s arrest by the State Attorney’s Office – 20th Judicial Circuit of Florida.

Swanson was located by the United States Marshals Service in Houston, Texas and arrested on the outstanding warrant on July 14.

He is currently incarcerated at the Montgomery County, Texas, Jail.