Edward Adams, Real Estate Scam, New York 2013

Edward Adams, a 69-year-old New York attorney, has pleaded guilty to participating in a multi-million dollar real estate scam. The scheme, which began in early 2008, involved Adams and his co-conspirator, James Monahan, a former New York City Police Department sergeant and owner of Panam Management Group, Inc.

As part of the scheme, Adams and Monahan negotiated with another real estate investment company to solicit investors for a project in the Dominican Republic. Investors were told that their funds would be deposited into escrow accounts managed by Adams, but instead, the funds were misappropriated and used by Adams and Monahan for their own gain.

According to the Information, statements made during today's guilty plea proceeding, and a Complaint previously unsealed in Manhattan federal court, Adams and Monahan executed agreements that required investor funds to be deposited into escrow accounts. From October 2008 through February 2009, approximately $4.7 million in investor funds were deposited into the escrow accounts. Shortly after the deposits were made, the funds were improperly withdrawn by Adams and Monahan without disclosure to investors.

In an effort to hide the fact that the funds had been removed from the escrow account, Monahan mailed a forged letter on the stationery of a major bank to investors in May 2009 claiming that their money was safely deposited with that bank. However, by June 2009, all of the investor funds had been taken from the escrow accounts. At that point, almost no work had been performed on the purported project in the Dominican Republic. None of the money was returned to investors.

Adams, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge John G. Koeltl on October 18, 2013 at 10:00 a.m.

Monahan, who also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Koeltl on October 4, 2013 at 10:00 a.m.

The case was brought in coordination with President Barack Obama's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, on which Preet Bharara serves as a Co-Chair of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Working Group. The task force was established to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/new-york-attorney-pleads-guilty-participating-multi-million-dollar-real-estate-fraud