A 55-year-old Damascus man, who owned a real estate investment company with his partner from Sherwood, is facing charges after allegedly defrauding investors and commercial lenders to the tune of more than $18 million.
Anthony M. Matic, of Damascus, and Robert D. Christensen, 54, of Sherwood, are facing a 21-count indictment related to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. They first appeared in federal court Tuesday morning, Aug. 27. They were arraigned, pleaded not guilty, and were released on conditions pending a 7-day jury trail scheduled for late October.
The charges stem from a pair of ploys.
According to the indictment, from January 2019 through June 2023, the duo allegedly carried out a scheme where they convinced investors to fund the purchase and renovation of undervalued residential real estate properties. After renovations, the pair said they would rent those properties to generate income and refinance them to gain further value. Matic and Christensen allegedly told investors they would be repaid their full principal investment, along with interest as high as 8-15%, within the first 30 to 90 days.
But the indictment said those promised returns never occurred, and the duo allegedly used new investments to repay earlier investors to keep the business afloat. When they were unable to pay back investors, they allegedly devised a separate scheme to defraud commercial lenders. By December 2020, the pair submitted loan applications with false financial information to different lenders to gain millions of dollars in loans.
In total the two schemes defrauded individual investors out of more than $11 million, and commercial lenders out of more than $7 million.
The pair also allegedly further misled investors into believing they would be repaid their full principal investment along with interest as high as 8-15%, as soon as 30 to 90 days after the initial payment.
Charges related to wire fraud are punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison with three years’ supervised release. Money laundering has an upper limit of 10 years in prison.
The case was investigating by the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Trisotto.
Most Popular
Comments / 0