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PARKERSBURG -- A Parkersburg man is facing multiple charges in connection with several separate acts of schemes and forgery affecting many victims in the area.
Wood County Magistrate Court records say Melvin Lee Romeo, 43, 801 Pike St., Parkersburg has been fraudulently buying and selling property and has received an unknown amount of money from several victims.
On some occasions, Romeo has attempted to buy property but doesn't pay for it; he then claims to own it and tries to sell it to someone else.
According to a criminal complaint filed with the Wood County Magistrate Court, Romeo had an agreement with Victim A last June in regard to a property sale including pieces of land and cleaning equipment and vehicles from a local business.
Romeo agreed to purchase the property from Victim A for $600,000, the complaint said, but failed to make payments.
Last September, Romeo had a check from Victim B in the amount of $25,000, which was intended to be used as collateral in the purchase of property, the complaint said.
The property in question belongs to Victim A which Romeo had agreed to purchase from him through a land contract during the incident last June, the complaint said.
"The defendant has yet to pay anything to (Victim A) and has defaulted. The property therefore is not the property of the defendant to put up as collateral," the complaint said.
The check was written to Romeo to give ownership of the property to Victim B if Romeo failed to pay the loan back, the complaint said.
For these incidents, Romeo is being charged with two counts of fraudulent schemes and is being held on a $50,000 cash bond.
Earlier this month, Romeo was arrested after attempting to sell property he did not own and trying to sell the same piece of property to two separate parties, according to Wood County Magistrate Court records.
In one incident, Romeo forged a signature on an official, notarized document to sell property fraudulently and in another, he claimed he owned a property and tried to sell it to someone when he was not the owner, according to magistrate records.
For those instances, he was charged with three counts of forgery, forgery of a public document, false pretense and conspiracy.
He is being held at North Central Regional Jail on a combined $81,000 cash bond.
Candice Black can be reached at cblack@newsandsentinel.com.