The U.S. Department of Justice says a 34-year-old nurse anesthetist and real estate investor is the mastermind of a massive bank fraud scheme.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota says Matthew Thomas Onofrio devised and carried out the scheme by creating a fraudulent real estate investment program.
Onofrio would enter into purchase agreements for commercial properties, which he assigned to investors at inflated prices.
Since these investors did not have the money needed to purchase the multimillion-dollar properties that he offered, he advised them to lie to banks and give false information so they could get loans they could not afford.
When the lending banks asked for proof of funds from the investors, Onofrio temporarily wired money into their bank accounts so it would appear they had the required financial capacity. He also instructed them to tell the banks that the funds were from other investments or they had family money.
Investors were drawn to the scheme because Onofrio established himself as a real estate savant through online professional networking groups and on a popular real estate investing podcast called Bigger Pockets.
Over the course of two years between 2020 and 2022, Onofrio completed 68 deals involving $420,564,795 in fraudulently obtained bank loans.
He netted at least $35,745,252 from the scheme before he was caught, and has been sentenced to three years in federal prison.
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