PatrickPretty.com

Tag: real-estate schemes

  • BULLETIN: Feds Say New York Man Was Running $50 Million Real-Estate Ponzi Swindle; Gershon Barkany Arrested By FBI

    breakingnews72BULLETIN: A man in the Far Rockaway section of the New York City Borough of Queens was running a $50 million real-estate Ponzi swindle that duped investors into believing they were investing in a “risk-free” flipping scheme involving large properties in New York and New Jersey, federal prosecutors said.

    Gershon Barkany, 29, was arrested today by the FBI.

    “As alleged, Barkany promised a get-rich-quick investment scheme that really had potential to enrich only him,” said George Venizelos, assistant director-in-charge of the New York FBI office. “There were no investment properties, just a house of cards built on a foundation of lies.”

    From a statement by the office of Loretta E. Lynch, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York (Italics added):

    According to the criminal complaint that was unsealed this morning, Barkany induced at least five investors to wire transfer large sums of money supposedly to purchase real estate in Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx and Atlantic City, New Jersey. According to one of the investor victims, Barkany claimed that the sellers of these properties would only close on the real estate sales contracts after Barkany had located a purchaser who would be willing to buy the property from Barkany at a higher price. In that way, Barkany assured the victim that the real estate deals would be “risk free.”

    In fact, the real estate deals did not exist. As part of Barkany’s Ponzi scheme, he diverted some of the funds he received to pay investors whom he had earlier defrauded. The defendant also lost some of the funds in gambling and otherwise used the money for his own benefit.

  • BULLETIN: 6-Time Felon Sentenced To 12 Years In Ponzi Scheme; Anthony Ray Will Serve ‘Every Day Of His . . . Sentence,’ Georgia Prosecutors Say

    BULLETIN: A six-time felon who hatched a real-estate Ponzi scheme and swindled a dozen investors out of $660,000 has been sentenced to 12 years in a Georgia state prison, the office of DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James said.

    Anthony Ray ripped off his own flesh and blood and met some of his victims at Pine Grove Baptist Church, prosecutors said.

    “He had a total disregard for others to the degree he even stole from his own father,” said James. “I hope this case serves as a warning for residents to do a thorough background check on any investments that may sound too good to be true. They often are just that.”

    Judge Gregory Adams also ordered Ray placed on probation for eight years after his prison release, prosecutors said, noting that Ray “will be required to serve every day of his twelve-year sentence.”

    Ray was prosecuted on racketeering charges and pleaded guilty.

  • BULLETIN: SEC Says Utah Scammers Funneled Money To 2 Ponzi Schemes; Christopher A. Seeley, Justin G. Dickson Accused Of Conducting Offering Fraud That Raised Millions

    BULLETIN: The SEC has gone to federal court to accuse two Utah men of conducting a $7.9 million offering fraud in which money that flowed from investors was used to prop up two Ponzi schemes.

    Named defendants were Christopher A. Seeley, 36, of Herriman,  and Justin G. Dickson, 35,  of Salt Lake City. The offering fraud was conducted through Draper, Utah-based entities collectively known as “Alden View”: AVF Inc. and AV Funding LLC. The firms were described as unregistered “hard money” lending businesses that issued promissory notes that promised a high rate of return backed by real estate and quality due diligence on its borrowers, the SEC charged.

    Both of the Alden View entities now are defunct, and investors are out at least $6.3 million, according to the SEC.

    “In reality” the SEC charged, “Alden View funneled the majority of its investors’ funds into two Ponzi schemes that were run by its most significant borrowers.”

    The hard-money scheme lasted between 2006 and 2009, affecting at least 50 investors from “multiple states” who believed they were funding a sophisticated real-estate business, the SEC charged.

    The SEC identified one of the Alden View borrowers as Louis Dean Parrish, who also had a bankruptcy on his record.

    A man by the same name was identified by the state of Hawaii last year as a possible Ponzi schemer. Records in Utah show a 48-year-old man by the name name was booked by the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 31 on charges of racketeering, securities fraud, communications fraud and customer abuse.

    Louis Dean Parrish listed an address in Sandy, Utah, when booked, according to sheriff’s office records.

    In 2010, Hawaii TV station KITV4 reported that a man by the same name was a suspect in an affinity-fraud and investment scheme targeted at Mormons in the state.

    Utah has been plagued by fraud schemes targeted at people of faith, the FBI said last year.

    Seeley and Dickson “made false, fraudulent, and material misrepresentations and omissions” to investors in their promissory notes, the SEC charged.

    Read the SEC complaint.