|
|
|
Thurs., Feb. 3, 2005 |
|
|
| | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Patriot Ledger |
|
|
Landmark Hull estate: Seizure sought: Government accuses man of fraud in purchase of mansion
By STEVE ADAMS HULL - The stately mansion at Point Allerton was once a summer home for legendary Boston Mayor John F. ‘‘Honey Fitz'' Fitzgerald. Since 2000, however, federal prosecutors say it has been a pot of gold for Jamie Edelkind. The 41-year-old Georgia native is charged with fraudulently obtaining a series of mortgages and home equity loans from seven financial institutions and using them to buy and refurbish the the landmark estate. The government is now seeking to seize the property under asset-forfeiture laws. Shortly after his arraignment on fraud charges in Massachusetts last spring - and a conviction in Georgia in a similar scheme - Edelkind was able to refinance the mortgage a third time and obtain more than a half-million dollars in cash-out proceeds, prosecutors now charge. More than $300,000 was wired last summer to a bank account in Norway, where his wife and children are believed to have moved late last year. Edelkind is scheduled to go to trial Feb. 28 in U.S. District Court in Boston to face four counts of defrauding a financial institution, but a trial could be avoided if prosecutors reach a plea agreement. Prosecutors say Edelkind obtained the series of mortgages and loans on the property using his wife, Linda, as the applicant. Edelkind bought the 15-room mansion in 2000 after allegedly furnishing false information in a mortgage application to America's Moneyline Inc. submitted in his wife's name. The applications claimed that Linda Edelkind was earning more than $200,000 a year at Edelkind's home-based business, Apostille Inc. Edelkind submitted phony documents, including fabricated salary and tax statements, to show that his wife was making more than $200,000 a year and had $1 million in Norwegian bank accounts, prosecutors said. In fact, Linda Edelkind was a full-time homemaker and was not receiving a salary from Apostille, authorities said. Over the next 21/2 years, Linda Edelkind obtained three home equity loans totaling $730,000 from three mortgage companies. She also refinanced the mortgage twice: first for a $1 million loan from South Shore Savings Bank in 2001, and then for $2.1 million from Washington Mutual in 2003. The Hull assessors' office lists the value of the three-quarter-acre property and home at $1.8 million, and Linda Edelkind is listed as owner. Prosecutors say the Edelkinds used the money for renovations to the mansion and personal expenses. South Shore Savings Bank President John Boucher declined to comment on what safeguards the bank has to detect mortgage fraud. ‘‘If there was any way we could have avoided it, we would have,'' Boucher said, adding that the bank experienced no losses because Edelkind paid off the mortgage when he subsequently refinanced. ‘‘We thought we were done with it until we were subpoenaed (to provide documents to investigators),'' Boucher said. Edelkind founded Apostille in 2000 and ran it out of the mansion, promoting, on a now-defunct web site, plans to develop a ground-breaking anti-music piracy software program. Edelkind shared his vision for the company's future in a 2002 interview with The Patriot Ledger. He said the company wanted to recruit major record labels to sign licensing deals paying Apostille up to 3 percent of their royalties in exchange for the use of Apostille's anti-piracy software. He also was seeking individual investors to help finance the product's development. Prosecutors say Apostille had no substantial revenues and did not pay any salaries. Edelkind apparently left Massachusetts in 2003 and was arrested in Louisiana for failing to pay child support following dissolution of a previous marriage. He was promptly extradited to Georgia, where federal prosecutors had already indicted him in connection with a $600,000 check-kiting and bank fraud scheme that allegedly took place in 1998 and 1999. He was extradited to Massachusetts last year to face the charges related to the Hull mansion. While free on bail, Edelkind allegedly refinanced the mortgage on the Honey Fitz Mansion again for $3 million in his wife's name. Through a mortgage broker, he claimed that Linda was now making nearly $92,000 a month at Apostille, and obtained a $3.3 million mortgage from Fairmont Funding on Aug. 25. Fairmont sold the loan on Sept. 28 to Lehman Brothers, which deposited $569,878 in cash-out refinancing proceeds into Linda Edelkind's Fleet Bank checking account. During the next six weeks, about $308,000 allegedly was wired to Norway and Edelkind's wife and children moved there Oct. 18, and no subsequent mortgage payments have been made on the Honey Fitz Mansion. The mortgage is now in default. Edelkind has hired Boston attorney Robert Sheketoff, who could not be reached for comment yesterday. A federal judge in Georgia last July sentenced Edelkind to a year in prison, fined him $5,000 and ordered him to pay $221,000 in restitution to Old Republic Title Company. He was transferred in October to a federal medical center at the former Fort Devens in Ayer. Steve Adams may be reached at sadams@ledger.com. Copyright 2005 The Patriot Ledger |
|
|
| | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Patriot Ledger, 400 Crown Colony Drive |
