Hull Times

Hull Massachusetts

March 11, 2004

By Stephen Martin

On Wednesday, March 10, a Hull man was charged in federal court with bank fraud in connection with a series of loans through which he acquired and renovated the 15-room, seven-bedroom Tudor mansion located at 940 Nantasket Ave. The property was once owned by former Boston Mayor John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, father of Rose Kennedy and grandfather of President John F. Kennedy. US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Kenneth W. Kaiser, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New England, last week announced that Jamie Edelkind, 40, was charged in an Information with three counts of bank fraud. Authorities claim that Edelkind fraudulently obtained three loans totaling more than $2 million between August 2000 and March 2003. Edelkind also allegedly procured a series of primary mortgages in ever-increasing amounts, from $800,000 to $2.1 million, as well as several home equity lines of credit totaling $350,000, all on the strength of false representations of his wife Linda Edelkind's finances. In obtaining the loans, Edelkind allegedly used his wife's name in order to avoid disclosing the fact that he had filed for bankruptcy in October 1999.

Town records reveal that Linda Edelkind purchased the historic property for $900,000 in January 2001. According to the Information, Jamie Edelkind fabricated documents, including forged W-2 Wage and Tax Statements, indicating that his wife had an annual income of more than $200,000. A press release issued by the US Department of Justice last week states that Edelkind's wife has actually been a full-time homemaker, with no earnings. Edelkind also reportedly fabricated copies of bank records representing that his wife had more than $1 million in a Norwegian bank.

This is not the first time Edelkind has been accused of fraud. On July 31 of last year, a federal grand jury issued a criminal indictment charging him with 25 counts of fraud, all having taken place in 1999: 13 counts of depositing worthless checks amounting to more than $168,000; 10 counts of passing more than $235,000 in counterfeit checks; one count of bank fraud amounting to about $221,000; and the one count of bankruptcy mentioned above. Edelkind could spend up to 30 years in prison for the bank fraud count alone. If convicted on the charges contained in the recent Information, Edelkind faces up to 30 additional years imprisonment, to be followed by up to five years of supervised release, and a maximum $1 million fine on each of the three counts.

During Edelkind's arrest last year, police also discovered an outstanding warrant for non-support of a Louisiana child, the product of a previous marriage. In February 2003, his child support arrears came to $65,133, according to the Louisiana Dept. of Social Services Non-Custodial Parent Delinquency List.

In 1997, Edelkind was fined $350,000 by the Securities and Exchange Commission for misrepresenting the financial state of a previously owned company named Sage Technologies. A judge at that time reduced the fine to $27,195 after Edelkind claimed he was unable to pay.

Reportedly hoping to attract millions from investors interested in the development of an anti-piracy program for CDs and DVDs, the entrepreneur later started a new business, titled Apostille, which is apparently still operated out of the Allerton Hill mansion. On Tuesday, the Times called the listed number. A man who identified himself as Edelkind answered, but refused comment.

US Department of Justice Press Officer Samantha Martin told the Times on Wednesday that no arrest has been made as a result of the recent FBI investigation, but that Edelkind will be summonsed to appear in Federal District Court in Boston. Assistant US Attorney Paul G. Levenson, of Sullivan's Economic Crimes Unit, is prosecuting the case.

In December 2002, the Edelkinds apparently tried and failed to sell a chandelier that once hung in the mansion. The sellers, who offered the artifact on the Internet auction site eBay, claimed it was fashioned from the antlers of two deer that were shot by JFK and his brother, Robert F. Kennedy. An article in The Hull Times (12/26/02), however, cast doubt on the authenticity of that claim by pointing out that JFK was only four years old when Fitzgerald sold the edifice in 1921, and that RFK had not even been born.