Four real estate investors were sentenced in an extensive, multi-year conspiracy to obtain multimillion-dollar loans on commercial and multifamily properties fraudulently.
Aron Puretz, 53, of New Jersey, and his son, Chaim ‘Eli’ Puretz, 29, of New Jersey, were sentenced to prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution.
Aron Puretz was sentenced to 60 months in prison and ordered to pay $22,235,457 in restitution, and Eli Puretz was sentenced to 24 months in prison and ordered to pay $20,315,457 in restitution.
Moshe ‘Mark’ Silber, 34, of New York, and Fredrick Schulman, 72, of New York, were also sentenced to terms of imprisonment for their respective roles in a conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution.
Silber was sentenced to 30 months in prison, and Schulman was sentenced to 12 months and a day in prison, to be followed by nine months of home confinement. The restitution amounts for Silber and Schulman will be determined at a later hearing.
According to court documents, Aron and Eli Puretz were owners of a commercial property, Troy Technology Park, in Troy, Michigan. In September 2020, Aron and Eli Puretz purchased Troy Technology Park for approximately $42 million before selling or flipping the property to a co-conspirator for approximately $70 million.
Aron and Eli Puretz and their co-conspirators provided the lender with falsified documents that included the inflated purchase price. Based on the fraudulent documents, the lender funded a loan for $45 million.
To conceal the fraudulent nature of the transaction, Aron and Eli Puretz and co-conspirators arranged for a short-term $30 million loan, which was used to make it appear that they had the funds needed to close on the sale.
On September 25, 2020, a title company based in Lakewood, New Jersey, performed two simultaneous closings, one for the true sales price and another for the fraudulent sales price presented to the lender.
Separately, Silber and Schulman were managing members of Rhodium Capital Advisors, an entity that was involved in the acquisition and management of Williamsburg of Cincinnati, a large apartment complex in Cincinnati, Ohio.
In March 2019, Williamsburg of Cincinnati was acquired for $70 million. However, Silber, Schulman, and other co-conspirators utilised a stolen identity to present a lender and Fannie Mae with a fraudulent purchase-and-sale contract for over $95 million and other fraudulent documents.
On March 8, 2019, two closings were performed, one for the true $70 million sales price and another for the fraudulent over $95 million sales price presented to the lenders.
Based on the co-conspirators’ false statements, the lender and Fannie Mae funded a loan in excess of $74 million for the purchase of Williamsburg of Cincinnati.
