Dustin Lee LaFavre, 27, was a college senior, majoring in real estate finance, when he wrote this for his high school magazine’s 2004-05 winter issue:

“I’m planning on going to law school and am very active in investing in real estate right now. We’ll see what time produces.”

The years since he wrote those words have produced much for LaFavre, little of it good and a lot of it dishonest.

In 2002, he was convicted of criminal sexual conduct with a 13-year-old girl. In 2006, he and his father launched a failed real estate deal that killed a century-old golf course. In September 2008, he went to prison for violating probation.

Now, this former real estate investor faces a whole lot of time — behind bars. Last month, he pleaded guilty in federal court to a role in stealing more than $7 million as part of a multi-pronged mortgage fraud scheme. LaFavre faces up to 20 years in federal prison for a fraud he helped run from 2005 through 2008.

How did this onetime would-be lawyer and real estate deal-maker get so far off track? LaFavre and many of those who know him aren’t talking. But it appears LaFavre’s derailment began years before he wrote that blurb in St. Thomas Academy’s Saber magazine.

In July 2002, a 19-year-old LaFavre and a teenage friend decided to bring two girls they’d chatted with for months online back to a motor home on LaFavre’s Eureka Township property in Dakota County.

The girls said they went to hang out, according to a criminal complaint. LaFavre gave them an “orange-colored alcoholic beverage.” Then the boys had sex with the girls — LaFavre’s friend with the 14-year-old and LaFavre with the 13-year-old.

The girl told police that LaFavre knew how old she was, the complaint said. She said that she’d told LaFavre “no” while he was trying to have sex with her. He didn’t stop.

LaFavre later pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct. A prison sentence was stayed, and he was placed on probation.

In 2005, LaFavre and a business partner — known in court papers as “Individual 1” — started pitching discounted real estate to others throughout the metro area.

LaFavre and others who know him have identified his business partner as Troy Chaika. Together, they ran Superior Investment Group Inc. and marketed discounted properties to brokers and investors. In exchange, LaFavre and Chaika’s company would receive fees as part of the deal, according to e-mails they sent potential buyers.

In reality, according to the U.S. attorney’s office, LaFavre and “Individual 1” were committing mortgage and wire fraud.

According to the U.S. attorney’s office, LaFavre told investigators that he and his partner solicited buyers by telling them they would receive large sums of cash from the proceeds of the loans. Then, with his partner’s help, LaFavre negotiated property values to inflate the sale prices — which they would then report to mortgage lenders.

At closings, LaFavre said he and his partner would split the difference between the inflated prices and the actual prices with the buyers, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

In addition, LaFavre and his partner helped buyers qualify for mortgages by creating false verifications of employment, depositing money into their bank accounts, providing the down payments and working with mortgage brokers and loan officers willing to assist the fraud.

“He was living on the edge,” said a local real estate broker who knows LaFavre but does not want his name used for fear of his safety. “I never did any transactions with him. But he would pitch stuff. Eventually, all of that catches up to you.”

Officials say LaFavre and “Individual 1” defrauded at least 15 mortgage lenders regarding at least 172 properties. Chaika, who has not been charged in the case, did not return telephone calls seeking a comment.

A message to be delivered to LaFavre last month has not been answered. His attorney, Janet Newberg, declined to discuss his case. In his plea deal, LaFavre agreed to cooperate with investigators against other possible suspects.

Tom Musil, a professor in the Finance Department at the University of St. Thomas who specializes in real estate studies, once taught LaFavre. Musil said he is surprised to hear of the trouble encircling his former student.

“I will tell you, I have nothing but positive things to say about him,” said Musil, who has researched the explosion of mortgage fraud cases in Minnesota. “I find it incongruous, certainly about him as a person and certainly about the education he had.”

The golf course deal

In April 2006, Twin Cities businessman Scott LaFavre met with newspaper officials in Albert Lea to announce he had purchased the Albert Lea Golf Club. He planned to convert it into a $60 million, high-end real estate development.

LaFavre said his son Dustin would be in charge, said Tim Engstrom, managing editor of the Albert Lea Tribune.

They claimed to have buyers lined up. They admitted the proposed Eagle’s Rest development was “high-risk,” but they were certain the town could support it.

“That’s something we have calculated or we wouldn’t even have considered it,” Dustin LaFavre told the Tribune. “We have the best interest of Albert Lea in mind.”

But members of the golf club weren’t happy. On the day the deal closed, Dustin LaFavre walked into another Albert Lea golf club for a drink. Several of the Albert Lea Golf Club members were there — and gave LaFavre a piece of their mind, said Ron Freeman, a member since 1996.

“When he got up to leave,” Freeman said, “a couple of beers were thrown on him.”

Nothing was ever built. Today, Engstrom said, it’s just dirt under snow.

The golf club was sold at auction to a bank in December 2007. In December 2008, the Eagle’s Rest development went bankrupt. In fact, another of Scott LaFavre’s businesses — Eagle’s Rest Tree Farms in Webster — had also filed for bankruptcy in September 2008.

Scott LaFavre could not be reached for comment. His wife, Shari, did not respond to a message left on her Facebook page.

While his father’s tree farm was going under, Dustin LaFavre was heading to St. Cloud prison. Dakota County officials say the younger LaFavre was locked up from Sept. 9, 2008, to June 1, 2009, for violating probation from his criminal sexual conduct conviction.

According to Dakota County spokeswoman Gail Plewacki, LaFavre twice failed to comply with required sex offender treatment. He was cited for drunken driving in Prior Lake, Plewacki said, and had been arrested for not paying a cab driver.

Six months after his release from St. Cloud, LaFavre stood in a federal courtroom in St. Paul, pleading guilty to a $7 million fraud.