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Florida man issues guilty plea in real estate scam

On Behalf of | Sep 15, 2017 | Construction |

A Florida man issued a guilty plea, therefore waiving his right to be indicted, in a real estate scam that swindled millions of dollars from investors in Fairfield County, Connecticut. The man, 74, entered the guilty plea on Sept. 11 to wire fraud charges. The man, who is from Vero Beach, worked in the commercial real estate sector.

The defendant’s work in Fairfield County involved arranging the purchase and subsequent development of multiple commercial properties. These included hotels and residences with multiple tenants. The defendant had multiple business partners and they all operated using various entities. Those entities included Seaboard Properties Group LLC, Seaboard Stamford Investment Group and Seaboard Realty LLC.

The investment scam took place between 2010 and 2016. In order to make the deals look legitimate to prospective investors, the defendant would use spreadsheets with inflated statistics, including cash flow. The defendant provided business partners in the scam with fake lease commitments, fake sales contracts and various other fake documents.

In an effort to prevent investors from withdrawing their money, the defendant would provide them with false information about how their investments were faring when the scheme was active.

To top it all off, the defendant also began selling equity in properties that were not eligible to receive any additional money. Authorities believe that the scam caused investors and investor lenders to lose more than $69 million.

Are you preparing to enter into the commercial real estate market? Not sure how to make a purchase or sell a property? It’s a good idea to have an experienced real estate law attorney in Collier County by your side.

Source: Stamford Patch, “Florida Man Swindled Fairfield County Investors Out of Millions: U.S. Attorney,” Alfred Branch, Sep. 11, 2017

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