Compliance Corner: Robert Shapiro

Editorial Staff

16 October 2019

The mastermind of a $1.3 billion real estate Ponzi scheme has been sentenced to a 25-year prison sentence by a US federal court, media reports said.

The scam was carried out by Robert Shapiro, who in August this year pleaded guilty to the fraud. The scam was perpetrated via Shapiro’s now-defunct Sherman Oaks-based investment firm, Woodbridge Group of Companies.

More than 7,000 property investors were defrauded over five years until Woodbridge went bust in late 2017.

Most of the prison sentence, some 20 years, applies for the fraud and committing wire and mail fraud. Reports said that Shapiro, 61, was also sentenced to an additional five years for failing to pay $6.0 million in taxes owed between 2000 and 2005.

Shapiro had promised investors that the cash would be used to build and buy luxury properties that would generate high returns. However, Shapiro and his Woodbridge company bought those properties themselves, and used various legal entities to conceal the scam.