BOSTON – (RealEstateRama) — A former bank manager was sentenced on Friday, May 27, 2016 in connection with a multi-year, multi-property mortgage fraud scheme in Dorchester.
Arthur Samuels, 41, of Mattapan, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Senior Judge Mark L. Wolf to one year and one day in prison, two years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay restitution of $2,229,492. In 2012, Samuels pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud and one count of bank fraud.
From 2007 to 2008, Samuels engaged in a scheme with Michael David Scott, and others, to purchase multi-family residences and then sell individual condominium units in the buildings to straw buyers. Scott, a former realtor and developer, arranged to purchase multi-family residences and then sold individual condominium units to straw buyers recruited as investors by him, Samuels, and co-conspirators, Jerold Fowler and Thursa Raetz. Scott and his co-conspirators recruited straw buyers with promises that they would not have to make down payments, pay any funds at closing, or be responsible for mortgage payments, and would share in profits when the units were resold. In order to obtain mortgage loans for some of the straw buyers, Samuels created bogus bank deposits falsely representing that the straw buyers’ accounts had large balances with his bank. Scott then submitted mortgage loan applications that falsely represented key information, such as the buyers’ income, personal assets, down payment, and intention to reside in the condominiums. The mortgage lenders, (nine national mortgage companies and one local bank) were led to believe that the straw buyers had made substantial down payments and paid substantial sums at closing. In addition, Samuels also recruited a straw buyer for the purchase of two condominiums, and acted as a straw buyer himself on three properties.
In November 2015, Scott was sentenced to 135 months in prison, and Fowler and Raetz were sentenced to two years in prison.
United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; and Joel P. Garland, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston, made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Victor A. Wild and Ryan M. DiSantis of Ortiz’s Criminal Division.
