Braintree Man Defrauded Investors Out Of $12.9 Million: Feds

BRAINTREE, MA — A Braintree man, whose former business partner was pardoned by former President Donald Trump, is once again being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), following allegations he defrauded investors out of millions of dollars.

The SEC filed the complaint last week in U.S. District Court in Boston against Paul Hess, 65, of Braintree, Joshua Cabrera, 41, of Miami, and Cabrera's company Medsis International. Medsis International was founded in 2013 and provided governments and other large institutions with services for medical record databases. The complaint is the second the SEC levied against Hess for defrauding investors, according to court documents.

Between 2015 and 2020, Hess and Cabrera collected money from investors, but lied to them about contracts, customers, revenue and business operations, the complaint said. According to the complaint, Hess and Cabrera falsely claimed to have $1.1 billion in "booked" revenue from lucrative contracts with South American governments, despite the company making no money.

The lawsuit also says Hess lied about the commission he received for bringing in investors and about how much he was being paid. Between 2015 and 2019, Medsis International raised $12.9 million from investors, according to the complaint.

The SEC wants a judge to order Hess and Cabrera to give investors their money back and pay a civil fine.

In 2018, the SEC said they sued Hess on similar allegations, while he worked at Mozido. Hess and his business partner Michael Liberty were defendants in the case out of federal court in Maine, which accused the men of defrauding $50 million from investors.

The men were later indicted on wire and security fraud charges related to the fraud, according to federal authorities. But seven months later, Trump pardoned Liberty's charges as well as allegations he made illegal contributions to Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. Trump issued the pardon on his last day in office.

The charges were dropped against Hess two months later, with prosecutors in Maine citing Trump's pardon of Liberty.