Press Releases

BOSTON – The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced today a $57,000 settlement with two landlords and a property manager of three Dorchester apartments to resolve allegations they submitted false claims to the federal government after receiving impermissible excess rent payments from two low income…

BOSTON – A real estate attorney was sentenced today in connection with a sweeping conspiracy to defraud banks and mortgage companies by engaging in sham “short” sales of residential properties in Merrimack Valley. Jasmin Polanco, 37, of Methuen, was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge…

PHILADELPHIA – U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain announced that George Barnard, of Newtown Square, was sentenced today to five years in federal prison for defrauding lenders of almost $13 million. Barnard, 47, pleaded guilty to multiple fraud counts in April. He was also ordered to pay restitution…

BOSTON – A Methuen real estate broker was sentenced today in connection with a sweeping conspiracy to defraud banks and mortgage companies by engaging in sham “short” sales of residential properties in Merrimack Valley. Greisy Jimenez, 50, was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge Mark L.…

The owner of a former real estate escrow firm was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 24 months in prison for bank fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes. LORI LYNN ANDREW, 49, of Cashmere, Washington, the owner of Hartman Escrow, Inc., pleaded guilty to one count of bank…

Edward R. Daniel, a/k/a Edward Daniels, Judy Daniel, and the Edward R. Daniel Revocable Living Trust (collectively “Daniel”), a landlord participating in the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Housing Choice Voucher/Section 8 (HCV) Program has paid the United States…

BOSTON – Three Massachusetts men were charged today in federal court in Boston in connection with a 10-year mortgage fraud scheme involving at least two dozen fraudulent loan transactions and $4.3 million in losses to lenders. George Kritopoulos, 46, of Salem, a real estate developer, was arrested…

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A New Jersey man previously convicted in federal court in Massachusetts and incarcerated for masterminding a real estate fraud scheme, pleaded guilty in federal court in Providence on Friday to charges that he again conspired to defraud financially distressed homeowners,…

Universal American Mortgage Company LLC (UAMC) has agreed to pay the United States $13.2 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by falsely certifying that it complied with Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance requirements in connection with certain…

USAO, Eastern District of New York - Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, James Bayfield was sentenced by United States District Judge Eric N. Vitaliano to 21 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud. Bayfield…