Thomas Nicholas Salzano, Wire Fraud, Aggravated Identity Theft, New Jersey 2021

Portfolio manager Thomas Nicholas Salzano, aka ‘Nick Salzano,’ of Secaucus, New Jersey, was charged with using a sham loan document to defraud an investor of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Salzano, who is employed at National Realty Investment Advisors (NRIA), a Secaucus-based real estate fund with a purported $1.25 billion in assets under management as of 2021, allegedly used a fraudulent letter of intent (LOI) to obtain money from Victim 1.

According to documents filed in the case, Victim 1 purchased three units in NRIA’s real estate investment fund for $150,000 in May 2018, after hearing an advertisement for the fund on the radio. Individual 1, a vice president and senior independent project manager at NRIA, offered Victim 1 a guaranteed 6 percent return for each unit purchased, paid monthly, for the first two to two-and-a-half years of the five-year term, and the potential of greater guaranteed returns after the initial period.

Near the end of 2018, Individual 1 approached Victim 1 about a supposed new opportunity to become a joint venture partner with NRIA in a property in North Bergen, New Jersey, allegedly owned by NRIA. Victim 1 was asked to invest an additional $150,000 to bring her total investment to $300,000, which would allow her to participate in the joint venture.

Salzano allegedly provided Victim 1 with a forged letter of intent from Lender 1, a loan provider for estate investors and developers, which purportedly showed that NRIA intended to obtain a $25 million bank loan on the property. However, a representative later confirmed that the letter was fraudulent and Victim 2’s signature was forged.

Salzano was charged by complaint with one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. He appeared by videoconference on March 4, 2021, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Leda Dunn Wettre and was released on a $100,000 unsecured bond.

The wire fraud charge carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. The aggravated identity theft charge is punishable by a mandatory sentence of two years in prison to be served consecutively to any other term of imprisonment imposed.

Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge George M. Crouch Jr. in Newark, with the investigation leading to the charges.

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