The New Haven Independent reported today that “federal agents charged 15 people—some of them prominent local figures—with undertaking massive mortgage fraud and moved to take control of 51 blighted New Haven properties Thursday, as the government’s response to the aftermath of the foreclosure crisis took a new legal turn.”
“The feds’ charges were laid out in eye-popping legal complaints filed in three separate alleged schemes to buy and inflate values on distressed properties, then stiff government and private lenders and pocket the cash.”
“Agents arrested 13 of the 15 alleged conspirators Thursday. Those accused of masterminding the various, apparently unconnected schemes include some local notables: Menachem Joseph Levitin, part of one of the city’s fastest-growing empires of slum rental properties; West Haven Police Commissioner Thomas Gallagher, an appraiser accused of inflating property values in these transactions; former New Haven State Rep. Morris Olmer, who allegedly arranged deals under the pretense of being a lawyer despite having turned in his legal license; and Rabbi David Avigdor, a New Haven attorney allegedly practicing with Olmer.”
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