Attorney Sentenced in Condo Conversion Scheme

Rachel Dollar —  October 6, 2015 — 5 Comments

Michael R. Anderson, 46, attorney, Framingham, Massachusetts, was sentenced to two years in prison, two years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $11,048,212 in restitution and forfeit $7,413,712 in connection with a multi-year, multi-property mortgage fraud scheme in Dorchester and Roxbury, Massachusetts.  In January 2011, Anderson pleaded guilty to sixteen counts of wire fraud, nine counts of bank fraud, and two counts of engaging in unlawful monetary transactions.  

From September 2006 through April 2008, Anderson assisted Michael David Scott, a developer, with perpetrating a fraud scheme in connection with the purported sale of more than 27 condominium units in Boston, Massachusetts. Scott, who was charged separately, pleaded guilty in May 2015.

Scott and his associates bought multi-family dwellings promising to convert them into condominiums, and then resold the individual units to various straw buyers. The developer, Anderson, and others arranged for the straw buyers to obtain mortgage financing by falsifying key information, including the buyers’ intent to reside in the properties, assets, down payments, and funds paid at closing. Anderson and others arranged to prepare loan closing documents, and Anderson then closed the mortgage loans associated with these purchases. As the closing attorney, Anderson also was responsible for disbursing the fraudulently obtained mortgage loan proceeds.

Anderson was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock.  United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; and William P. Offord, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston, made the announcement. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ryan M. DiSantis of Ortiz’s Public Corruption Unit and Victor A. Wild of Ortiz’s Economic Crimes Unit.

 

 

 

 

Rachel Dollar

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5 responses to Attorney Sentenced in Condo Conversion Scheme

  1. He will serve at least 85% of the sentence – in a federal prison.

    • full time or weekends as I have seen done before; will he be in general population or is there special areas for this type of crime I know in Billerica there is special section and they sever weekends I think he has children

  2. The sentence is actually pretty typical of plea deals in these types of white collar crime cases. For the most part, if a defendant pleads guilty and cooperates, the sentence is from 1 to 3 years – though, of course, there are outliers. The long sentences are handed down when a defendant decides to roll the dice, goes to trial, and is found guilty. That is generally where the sentences creep into the seven to thirty year range ..

  3. Given the plea and the amount involved, the sentence seems ridiculously light.

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