Financial Fraud: TIMOTHY W. BURKE Sentenced For Defrauding Distressed Homeowners, And Tax Evasion

Man Who Defrauded Dozens of Distressed Connecticut Homeowners Sentenced to 9 Years in Federal Prison

<h2>Man Who Defrauded Dozens of Distressed Connecticut Homeowners Sentenced to 9 Years in Federal Prison<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Deirdre M&period; Daly&comma; United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut&comma; announced that TIMOTHY W&period; BURKE<b>&comma; <&sol;b>also known as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Bill Burke&comma;” &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;William Burke&comma;” &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Kerry Saunders&comma;” &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Pat Riley&comma;” &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Jim Caldwell&comma;” &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Jim Saunders&comma;” &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Tom Morrisey&comma;” &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Jimmy&comma;” &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Phil Burke&comma;” &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Phil&comma;” &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Burt&comma;” &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;James Burke&comma;” and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;M&period; Soler&comma;” 65&comma; formerly of Easton&comma; was sentenced today by U&period;S&period; District Judge Michael P&period; Shea in Hartford to 108 months of imprisonment&comma; followed by three years of supervised release&comma; for defrauding distressed homeowners&comma; and tax evasion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to court documents and statements made in court&comma; between approximately 2010 and November 2015&comma; BURKE engaged in a scheme to defraud individuals&comma; <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;category&sol;mortgage&sol;" title&equals;"mortgage" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"105">mortgage<&sol;a> lenders and the U&period;S&period; Department of Housing and Urban Development &lpar;HUD&rpar; by falsely representing to homeowners who were in&comma; or facing&comma; foreclosure on their homes that he would purchase their homes and pay off their mortgages&period; The distressed homeowners agreed to sign various documents&comma; including quitclaim deeds&comma; indemnification agreements&comma; management agreements and third party authorization letters&comma; which BURKE presented to them on the understanding that&comma; by signing the documents&comma; they would be able to walk away from their homes without the burdens of their mortgage or other costs associated with home ownership&period; BURKE also told homeowners that the process of negotiating with the lenders can take time and that&comma; in the meantime&comma; to ignore any notices regarding foreclosure&period; After he gained control of these houses&comma; BURKE rented out the properties to tenants by advertising the properties on craigslist&period;com and other means and falsely representing to tenants that BURKE owned the property&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>BURKE or one of his agents then collected rent from tenants&comma; in person&comma; and BURKE used the funds for his own benefit&period; BURKE failed to negotiate with the homeowners’ mortgage lender or pay expenses associated with the home&comma; including the homeowner’s mortgages and property taxes&comma; and he failed to pay any rental income he was collecting to the homeowners&period; Many of the properties BURKE purportedly purchased were ultimately foreclosed upon by the mortgage lender&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>BURKE undertook extensive efforts to disguise his true identity&comma; and hide his criminal past&comma; from his victims through the use of multiple aliases and business entities&comma; and to conceal the sources of and expenditures from his criminal proceeds&period; BURKE has been associated with multiple entities&comma; including Quality Asset Management Services&comma; LLC&semi; Birmingham Investments&comma; LLC&semi; the Birmingham Group of Companies&semi; Saunders Associates&semi; New Haven Investments&semi; Realty Partners Group&semi; Preston Associates II&semi; Landlord Maintenance Services&comma; LLC&semi; Turnkey Construction Services LLC&semi; The Complete Handyman&comma; LLC&semi; and Woodbridge Associates&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Dozens of distressed homeowners&comma; property renters and mortgage lenders were victimized during this scheme&period; Judge Shea will determine the amount that BURKE will be ordered to pay in restitution after further court proceedings&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In addition&comma; between 1994 and 2012&comma; BURKE evaded paying approximately &dollar;403&comma;726 in federal taxes&period; He now owes the Internal Revenue Service more than &dollar;1 million in back taxes&comma; interest and penalties&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"CxSpMiddle">BURKE has been detained since his arrest on November 19&comma; 2015&period; On January 24&comma; 2017&comma; he pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and one count of tax evasion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In 2002&comma; BURKE was indicted by a federal grand jury in New Jersey on charges of conspiracy&comma; mail fraud&comma; and equity skimming&period; BURKE subsequently pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit both equity skimming and mail fraud&comma; and he was sentenced to 60 months in prison&comma; followed by three years of supervised release&period; BURKE was released from federal custody in approximately August 2007 and began his federal supervised release at that time&period; One of the special conditions of BURKE’s supervised release was that he refrain from employment in the real estate business or mortgage industry&period; Based on his motion for early termination of his supervised release&comma; the New Jersey federal court terminated his supervised release approximately one year early in August 2009&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Bradford Barneys&comma; a Bridgeport-based attorney who assisted BURKE in this scheme&comma; previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud&period; In pleading guilty&comma; Barneys admitted that participated in numerous meetings with BURKE and homeowners during which BURKE represented to homeowners that he would purchase their properties&period; Barneys represented that these were legitimate transactions ever though he knew that BURKE had no intention of buying the properties and paying the outstanding mortgages on the properties&comma; and that BURKE was renting the properties to tenants&period; Barneys also represented BURKE and his companies in eviction proceedings against tenants&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"CxSpMiddle">Barneys awaits sentencing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This matter has been investigated by Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division&comma; the U&period;S&period; Department of Housing and Urban Development – Office of Inspector General&comma; and U&period;S&period; Postal Inspection Service&comma; with the critical assistance of the Middletown&comma; Plainville&comma; Easton and Coventry Police Departments&comma; the Connecticut State Police and the Bureau of Alcohol&comma; Tobacco&comma; Firearms and Explosives&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorneys David T&period; Huang and Sarah P&period; Karwan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;usao-ct&sol;pr&sol;man-who-defrauded-dozens-distressed-connecticut-homeowners-sentenced-9-years-federal">Original PressReleases&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

Share This Article
Follow:
FraudsWatch is а site reporting on fraud and scammers on internet, in financial services and personal. Providing a daily news service publishes articles contributed by experts; is widely reported in thе latest compliance requirements, and offers very broad coverage of thе latest online theft cases, pending investigations and threats of fraud.
Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Exit mobile version