Man charged with stealing nearly $39K down payment in real estate scheme

A Maryland man is facing felony charges after investigators linked him to the theft of nearly $39,000 from a Central Florida couple who were tricked into wiring him the down payment for their new home.Cecil Porter Bartu was arrested in August and charged with obtaining property by fraud, grand theft, and fraudulent use of personal identification information, according to an arrest affidavit filed in Polk County Circuit Court.Matthew Brock and his wife, Stefanie, were preparing to close on a new home when they began receiving emails from what appeared to be their home title company. The emails came from a spoofed address nearly identical to the firm’s real email address. The only difference was the domain extension: “.co” instead of “.com.”“I don’t think you’re really looking for one consonant to be left out of an email,” Matthew Brock told News 6 in 2025.In January 2025, the couple received wiring instructions from the spoofed email address directing them to send $38,805.17 to a fraudu