Saturday, May 19, 2012

Woodbridge Man Sentenced to 33 Months for Defrauding Individuals and Lenders of More Than $1.5 Million


David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that John Voloshin, 56, of Woodbridge, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Robert N. Chatigny in Hartford to 33 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for operating multiple fraud schemes that have caused losses of more than $1.5 million to individuals and lenders. Voloshin has been detained since his arrest on November 18, 2011. On January 19, 2012, he waived his right to indictment and pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud.

According to court documents and statements made in court, in approximately 2006, Voloshin asked an individual to loan him $500,000. Voloshin indicated that he was in contract to purchase a house on Martha’s Vineyard, but that he needed the money or he would lose a deposit. The victim agreed to loan Voloshin the money. To date, Voloshin has not repaid the loan.

In 2008, Voloshin received a home equity loan in the amount of $250,000 from Webster Bank. In support of his home equity loan application, Voloshin submitted a false federal tax return. As of August 2011, the outstanding balance on the bank loan was more than $252,000.

In 2010, Voloshin defrauded an individual for whom he had agreed to bid on the bank auction of a hotel on Nantucket. Voloshin instructed the victim to send him a check in the amount of $250,000 made payable to the name of the auction company. Rather than delivering money to the auction company, Voloshin deposited the check into a bank account for which he had sole signatory authority and used the proceeds from that check to enrich himself.

In June 2010, Voloshin applied for and received a $520,000 refinance loan from a mortgage lender for a property he has owned on Martha’s Vineyard since 1999. In association with the loan application, Voloshin submitted a financial account statement showing an account balance in excess of $3 million at UBS when, in reality, he had no account at UBS. Voloshin used approximately $250,000 of the refinance loan proceeds to pay the victim of the hotel auction fraud scheme.

In total, Voloshin’s schemes resulted in losses of approximately $1.52 million.

Today, Judge Chatigny ordered Voloshin to pay restitution in the amount of $1,311,035.67.

This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys David T. Huang and Michael S. McGarry.

This case was brought in coordination with the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which was established to wage an aggressive and coordinated effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.

To report financial fraud crimes, and to learn more about the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, please visit www.stopfraud.gov.

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