A federal grand jury has indicted a former Nashua man whom investigators say was the ringleader of a mortgage scheme that duped financially strapped homeowners out of their properties, which were eventually lost to foreclosure.
Michael Prieto will make his first appearance in U.S. District Court in Concord on Tuesday afternoon to answer charges of mail fraud and money laundering, according to federal court documents.
…Prieto recruited straw buyers, used misleading newspaper ads to find buyers, and caused mortgage lenders to be defrauded because some of the applications included false information about income, assets and liabilities, employment and that the homes would be the applicant’s primary or secondary residences, according to court documents.
He typically paid the straw buyers $5,000 for each transaction, according to the indictments. The charges include a list of 10 payments of $5,000 to several alleged straw buyers from several different LLCs.
Prieto started and used several companies to run the scheme, according to court records, including Houston Finance and Leasing Inc., Hyannis Investments LLC, Houston Real Estate Management LLC, Rock Point Management LLC, 2Maisie5 Realty I LLC, and 5Summit5 Realty LLC.
He kept the proceeds from the scheme in a TD Bank account, paid himself large amounts of money from the account and also made payments using the account on restaurant meals and trips to Foxwoods Casino, according to the indictments.
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