Brooklyn businessman charged with duping Russian immigrants in lucrative five-year scam
A Brooklyn businessman, busted in a lucrative mortgage scam, was looking for love and a luxury car.
Marat Lerner, president of the Lerner Group, duped his Russian immigrant customers out of more than $500,000 while using the illicit funds to buy a BMW, enjoy expensive meals — and cover the cost of his applications for online dating services, federal prosecutors charged.
“The defendant preyed on immigrants burdened by mortgage debt in the Russian community in Brooklyn, stealing their American Dream through a scheme built on false promises to help them keep their home,” said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace.
“But in truth, he took advantage of their trust to enrich himself.”
Lerner, 40, was charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering in the ripoff where he stole at least $550,000 from his clients, prosecutors said. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, and authorities urged any other victims of the crime to file complaints on this website.
“This office has prioritized protecting vulnerable members of our district and we encourage them to come forward and put their trust in us to seek justice for them,” said Peace.
According to the indictment, Lerner’s company promised its clients help in reducing their monthly mortgage payments and outstanding balance. He then created a bogus escrow agent named Testoni & Villa, with authorities charging he secretly ran the business and deposited his clients’ checks into an account he was in charge of.
“The defendant, as we allege, funded his own lavish lifestyle by operating a lengthy scam exploiting his victims’ trust and fears in order to steal their money rather than fulfill his promise to modify their mortgages,” said Michael Driscoll, FBI assistant director in charge of the New York office.
Court papers said the crooked operation ran between August 2016 and January 2021, with Lerner and a co-conspirator convincing clients he could lower their mortgage balance for a fee. He instructed customers not to contact their mortgage banks directly and solicited their account and routing numbers, the documents alleged.
One victim had at least 95 of his bank checks redirected into accounts under Lerner’s name between approximately April 2017 and November 2019, with a total of $194,500 taken, prosecutors charged.
Lerner paid off less than $7,000 of the funds to the victim’s mortgage banks, and the client was left to face foreclosure proceedings, authorities said. The victim received correspondence from a lawyer named “Robert Francis,” and was told the phony Testoni & Villa was based in Grandville, Mich., court papers showed.
“The Testoni letters did not disclose Lerner’s connection to Testoni & Villa or the fact that Lerner controlled the ... account,” according to court papers.
