The $27 Million Mortgage Fraud and the Kiddush Club

I'm told by anonymous that Mr. Hershkowitz contributes to the Kiddush Club of the Atlantic Beach Jewish Center. The FBI came and took him away. One less shnapps to pour this week.

Two arrested in New York real estate investment scheme allegations
Posted on Monday, July 30, 2007 at 11:40AM by The Editor - Ian Shuter in Flipping, Investment Schemes, New York, Arrests

In the following press release MICHAEL J. GARCIA, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and MARK J. MERSHON, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced today the arrests of Michael Hershkowitz and Ivy Woolf-Turk in connection with an elaborate scheme to defraud approximately 70 individuals of over $27 million. As alleged in the Complaint filed in Manhattan federal court:

HERSHKOWITZ and WOOLF-TURK, working through a Manhattan real estate development company, The Kingsland Group, Inc., and related entities (collectively, “The Kingsland Group”), fraudulently induced approximately 70 individuals (the “Investor Victims”) to loan them, in the aggregate, over $27 million, purportedly to fund the renovation of approximately sixteen multi-family apartment buildings located in upper Manhattan.

As part of the fraud, HERSHKOWITZ and WOOLF-TURK falsely represented that the Investor Victims would hold, as collateral for the loans, interests in bona fide first mortgages in the various properties in which they thought they were investing. In fact, the Investor Victims did not hold recorded, first mortgages in the properties. The defendants have defaulted on a number of the loans by failing to make scheduled payments of both interest and principal. To date, the Investor Victims’ losses exceed $27 million. more details...