Thomas Donovan, Wire Fraud, New York 2013

A Long Island man has been sentenced to 55 months in prison for his role in a $31 million sub-prime mortgage scheme.

Thomas Donovan, 67, of Huntington, NY, was sentenced on May 23, for his guilty plea to wire fraud conspiracy on May 31, 2013. The court also ordered Donovan to forfeit more than $31 million in ill-gotten gains and pay over $31 million in restitution.

Donovan was the co-owner of Private Capital Group, which invested in sub-prime mortgages. The main investor in Private Capital Group was Ficus Investments, Inc., which invested more than $300 million. Instead of using those funds as agreed upon, Donovan and his co-owners took more than $31 million for themselves and concealed the theft by providing their investors with false and misleading financial reports.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Long Island Criminal Division. Assistant United States Attorney Christopher Ott is in charge of the prosecution.

The sentence was imposed by the Honorable Joanna Seybert at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York.

This prosecution was the result of efforts by President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which was created in November 2009 to combat financial crimes.

The task force has made great strides in investigating and prosecuting financial crimes, enhancing coordination and cooperation among federal, state, and local authorities, and addressing discrimination in the lending and financial markets.

Since its formation, the task force has filed over 10,000 financial fraud cases against nearly 15,000 defendants, including over 2,700 mortgage fraud defendants.

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