Swoveland, 38, scammed at least eight people, persuading them to rent empty homes that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development was in the process of selling.

A licensed real estate agent in Indiana until 2008, Swoveland is accused of advertising the homes on Craigslist under a fake name. He then showed prospective renters the homes using a HUD master key. HUD is investigating how he obtained the key, but officials suspect he got it while he was a licensed agent.