2 former Sherman Oaks executives plead guilty to role in $ 1.3 billion real estate fraud – Daily News
Two other Californian men have pleaded guilty in South Florida for their role in a $ 1.3 billion real estate fraud scheme that stole money from thousands of investors across the country.
Dane Roseman, 38, and Ivan Acevedo, 44, both of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty in Miami federal court on Monday to participating in a massive investment fraud scheme, in which more than 7 000 victims suffered financial losses, according to court records. The co-accused Robert Shapiro had already been sentenced to 25 years in prison for having orchestrated the scheme. Roseman and Acevedo are set to be sentenced on September 20.
Shapiro was the former owner, president and CEO of Woodbridge Group of Companies LLC. The company had offices employing 130 people in California, Florida, Tennessee, Colorado and Connecticut. Prosecutors say Shapiro told investors that Woodbridge has home loans that would pay them interest rates between 5% and 10%. In fact, real estate was owned by Shapiro through 270 shell companies as well and did not generate the necessary money for investors. Sometimes the properties didn’t even exist.
It became a Ponzi scheme that paid older investors with money from newer ones, court records show. Five states issued cease and desist orders because Woodbridge was selling unregistered securities.
Roseman and Acevedo both worked as sales managers for Woodbridge, officials said. They sold securities and trained and supervised internal Woodbridge sales agents who sold Woodbridge securities. Using high pressure selling tactics, Shapiro, Roseman, Acevedo and others have marketed and promoted these investments as low risk, safe, straightforward, and conservative.
Authorities say the scam operated from at least July 2012 until December 2017, when the company filed for bankruptcy and defaulted on its obligations to investors.