Hartford Landlords Sentenced For Mortgage Fraud: Feds

HARTFORD, CT — Two New York property managers Monday were sentenced for crimes related to a complicated mortgage fraud scheme involving several multi-family housing sites in Hartford.

Vanessa Roberts Avery, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, said Monday the duo was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Omar A. Williams in Hartford.

According to Avery, the pair engaged "in a wide-ranging mortgage fraud scheme involving 24 mortgage loans on numerous multifamily housing properties in Hartford totaling nearly $50 million."

Sentenced were:

• Jacob Deutsch, 58, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was sentenced to more than five years of imprisonment and four years of supervised release and was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.

• Aron Deutsch, 63, of Monsey, N.Y., was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay a $1 million fine.

According to court documents and statements in court proceedings, Jacob Deutsch and Aron Deutsch work at B H Property Management, LLC, a property management company that manages numerous multifamily housing properties in Hartford.

Avery said from September 2016 through May 2021, Jacob Deutsch, who ran the day-to-day operations of BHPM, and Aron Deutsch engaged in a scheme to defraud government-sponsored financial institutions — the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Co. (Freddie Mac), the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

They did so, Avery said, by providing the institutions with false information overstating the value of multifamily housing properties managed by BHPM in connection with loans secured by those properties.

Jacob and Aron Deutsch were both arrested on May 19, 2021.

After his arrest and while released on bond, Jacob Deutsch victimized another lender to secure an $11 million loan.

Jacob and Aron Deutsch pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud affecting a financial institution on July 12, 2022, and June 1, 2022, respectively.

Jacob Deutsch is required to report to prison on March 8.

Jacob Deutsch’s criminal history includes a wire fraud conviction in the Eastern District of New York stemming from an insurance fraud scheme, Avery said.

In October 2003, he was sentenced to three months of imprisonment for that offense.

For more information on the sentencing, including further details of the offenses, click on this link.