When unpublished manuscripts aren’t necessarily a good idea

Matthew Cox studied art at the University of South Florida, went into insurance, and wrote a novel called THE ASSOCIATES. The problem is, as federal agents are finding out, the manuscript served as a blueprint for Cox’s crimes, and now there’s a warrant out for his arrest:

Matthew B. Cox had made the transition from a dead-end insurance

sales job to a promising career in the mortgage brokerage business some

years ago when he penned a crime novel titled The Associates.

   Cox billed the novel as fiction, but it has proved to be much closer to autobiography.

According to evidence uncovered by federal agents, the 317-page,

unpublished manuscript was apparently a blueprint for a

multimillion-dollar series of white-collar crimes that so far has

spread across two states.

The fictional protagonist in Cox’s book, former University of South

Florida student Christian Locke, leaves a $26,000-a-year insurance

sales job to make it big in the mortgage business, finds himself in hot

water with the FBI and executes an elaborate plan to defraud lenders of

millions before making his getaway.

Cox, 35, himself a former USF art student, started his own mortgage

company, was charged with fraud in Tampa, then, according to court

records, masterminded a scheme to use phony identities and falsified

records to make a fortune with fraudulent loans on dilapidated

properties in Tampa Heights. He is now a fugitive.

As the FBI reads on, the parallels get weirder and weirder:

   In the conclusion to The Associates, Locke packs a

suitcase with cash, leaves his silver Audi TT in a parking lot and

boards a cruise liner in Tampa to make a rendezvous with his girlfriend

on a Caribbean island.

A year ago, Cox left his leased, silver Audi TT in a secluded

parking lot and dropped out of sight. He surfaced this summer in

suburban Atlanta where, federal agents say, he and a female accomplice

used identity theft and forged records to make off with $800,000.

“It’s kind of creepy he’d put it all down in a book,” said Gerald

Scott Cugno, 31, a Hillsborough County mortgage broker who did business

with Cox for several years and read parts of The Associates as Cox wrote it.

There’s lots more, but it’s fascinating to see if Cox will actually pull it off–staying on the lam and following his blueprint manuscript all the way. Catch him if they can, indeed…