New York Real Estate Investors Admit Guilt in Multi-Million Dollar Mortgage Conspiracy

A trio of real estate investors including two men from New York and one from New Jersey recently had their day in court when they plead guilty to crimes for their roles in a massive, multi-year mortgage fraud conspiracy. In their scheme, the men fraudulently obtained multiple loans worth tens of millions of dollars and acquired multi-family properties.

Background of the Guilty and Claims

The details of the trio's entire fraud conspiracy have been outlined in documents released by the U.S Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs. According to the documents the fraud was carried out by Fredrick Schulman, 72, Moshe “Mark” Silber, 34, both of New York, and Chaim “Eli” Puretz, 29, of New Jersey.

Details state that the scheme began back in the year 2018 and continued into 2020. Together the three men...

conspired with others to deceive lenders into issuing a mortgage loan for a multifamily property and Fannie Mae into funding or purchasing the mortgage loan.

At the time, Silber and Schulman were managing members of Rhodium Capital Advisors, a real estate developer in New York. As an entity they were involved in the acquisition and management of Williamsburg of Cincinnati, an apartment complex located in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Puretz was one of the owners of the commercial property Troy Technology Park located in Troy, Michigan. Silber, Schulman, Puretz, with their co-conspirators provided the lenders and Fannie Mae, AKA: The Federal National Mortgage Association with falsified documents, including a purchase contract with an inflated purchase price and other fraudulent documents.

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Devil in Fraud Details

According to the official press release, the acquisition of Williamsburg of Cincinnati happened in March 2019 for a price tag of $70 million dollars. However with the use of a stolen identity, Silber and Schulman presented a lender and Fannie Mae with a purchase and sale contract for $95.85 million along with other fraudulent documents.

Two closings were then performed on March 8, 2024, one for $70 million and the other for $95.85 million. Based on the false statements of co-conspirators, a loan to the amount of $74.25 million was granted by lenders and Fannie Mae for the purchase of Williamsburg of Cincinnati.

Fast forward a year and a half later to September of 2020, Puretz and co-conspirators acquired Troy Technology Park for $42.7 million. Puretz with co-conspirators used a fraudulent letter of intent submitted to the lender and to the appraiser to purchase the property from another party for $68.8 million. The lender then not knowing the documents were false funded a $45 million dollar loan.

Puertz and co-conspirators then arranged themselves another loan for $30 million to bolster there fraud and close the sale. Then like the first case, two closings were held on September 25, 2020 one for the real $42.7 million and the other for the fraudulent $70 million.

Totals and Charges

Between both transactions the trio fraudulently obtained $119 million dollars. $74 million coming from the 2019 transaction and then $45 million from the 2020 transaction.

For their roles in the respective fraud and conspiracy, both Fredrick Schulman and Chaim “Eli” Puretz each plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution. Moshe “Mark” Silber also plead guilty to the same charge, though he gave his guilty plea earlier this Summer on July 9.

All three men are scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 3 with each of them  face a maximum penalty of five years in prison.