North Potomac Woman's Phony Investment Scam Nets Prison Time

NORTH POTOMAC, MD — A North Potomac woman who ran a phony investment scheme, stealing more than $300,000 from victims, was sentenced Monday to two years in federal prison, authorities said.

Sultana Siddiqui, a/k/a Sultana Ahmad, 56, of North Potomac, must also serve three years of supervised release after her prison term for conspiring to commit wire and mail fraud. A federal judge also entered an order requiring Siddiqui to forfeit $405,000, and pay restitution of $402,800, the loss resulting from the scheme minus $2,200 in “lulling payments” paid to two of the victims in order to prevent them from going to authorities.

Siddiqui was immediately taken into custody after the judge found that she violated the conditions of her pretrial release by visiting the victims last weekend.

According to her guilty plea, Siddiqui was a mortgage broker who lied to victims, telling the that co-conspirator Alexander Matthews was an investor or developer who could secure substantial returns on the victims' investments in a short time period, according to the Department of Justice.

Siddiqui solicited investments from each of the victims, vouched for Matthews's trustworthiness and business acumen, and received money from the victims. She deposited most of the money from the victims into her personal bank account. Then she and/or Matthews gave each victim a post-dated check in the amount of the victim's investment plus the promised return. None of the post-dated checks were negotiable on the promised return date, authorities say. After the victims discovered that the post-dated checks were not negotiable, Siddiqui and/or Matthews sent lulling payments and/or email communications to the victims.

For example, in 2008, a real estate agent and her husband agreed to invest $300,000, drawn on their home equity line of credit, to renovate a home in Clifton, VA, which Siddiqui and Matthews claimed was to be leased by the FBI. Siddiqui, however, deposited the money in her personal bank account, and no lease agreement existed with the FBI. Siddiqui and Matthews used the money for their own benefit, providing only a small number of lulling payments to the victims, prosecutors said.

In November 2010, at Siddiqui’s urging, another victim agreed to invest $50,000 with Matthews and give Siddiqui a $5,000 personal loan. In return, Siddiqui gave the victim a promissory note for the investment signed by Matthews, and two post-dated checks: one for $6,000 from a bank account held by Siddiqui; and one for $60,000 from an account held by Matthews. When the victim attempted to cash the checks, a bank official told her they were not negotiable.

Siddiqui sent several emails to the victim, claiming that she would be repaid, but the victim has not received any payment.

In total, prosecutors say Siddiqui and Matthews defrauded the victims of about $355,000.

Siddiqui admitted to defrauding another individual of $50,000 in a transaction in 2014.

Matthews, 50, of Dunn Loring, VA, pleaded guilty in 2011 in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia to his participation in the conspiracy and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.