Deal maker facing criminal charges
Jeffrey J. Lauro was another of those energetic builder-developer deal makers who appeared to have the knack for making millions during Southwest Florida’s real estate boom.
People who met him said the 37-year-old entrepreneur was everywhere at once — planning condo projects in Deep Creek, manufactured home projects in Inverness, buying and selling building lots in North Port and Port Charlotte, organizing sales of real estate to Europeans, managing an office with 30 employees on Tamiami Trail and lining up investors of every size for his various projects.
But when the real estate market soured, Lauro not only defaulted on millions of dollars in loans to banks and investors, but he has been charged by the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office with stealing nearly $200,000 through a construction loan scheme.
“He came to me to buy building lots,” said Tom Welchman, a Port Charlotte real estate agent who says Lauro failed to repay borrowed funds from a deal unrelated to Lauro’s criminal charges. “I loaned him $280,000. He bought and sold the lots within 40 days and never paid me back.”