TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Legal Newsline) - Two men responsible for $34 million in fraudulent mortgage loans were convicted Tuesday in a Florida state court for conspiracy to commit racketeering.

Mortgage brokers David E. Tuggle, Jr. and Eric S. Steinhauser of Hillsborough, Fla. pleaded guilty to submitting fraudulent loan documents to Argent Mortgage Company, one of the nation's largest subprime mortgage lenders, through Brandon, Fla.-based Sunstate Mortgage Company.

Tuggle and Steinhauser were prosecuted in Polk County by the Attorney General's Office of Statewide Prosecution.

Florida Attorney General Robert McCollum said Argent cooperated fully with the investigation.

"From 2003 through 2005, Tuggle and Steinhauser submitted more than 300 mortgage loan applications to Argent Mortgage," the attorney general's office said in a statement Tuesday.

"Of those 300 applications, more than 280 were funded and collectively valued at more than $34 million. Investigators believe the men paid one of their co-conspirators, a former Argent vice president, more than $100,000 for insuring the approval of these fraudulent loans."

According to the affidavit in the case filed in the Tenth Judicial Circuit Court, Tuttle, 31, and Steinhauser, 29, used stated income applications commonly used by self-employed business owners to get loans for people who didn't qualify under traditional terms.

Among other things, Tuggle and Steinhauser falsified documents using fictitious companies and inflated income.

A trial for co-defendants Orson Benn, former vice president of Argent Mortgage Co. and Constance Golder, an account executive, continues.

From Legal Newsline. Email comments to Lin Young at linyoung10@gmail.com.