Florida man who ran sports camps at Curry College convicted of defrauding families
BOSTON – A federal jury in Boston convicted a Florida man Thursday of stealing tuition and deposits from families that planned to send children to a sports camp at Curry College in Milton and Northeastern University in Boston, federal authorities said.
Mehdi Belhassan, 53, of Tampa, was convicted after a six-day jury trial of two counts of wire fraud, authorities said Friday.
Beginning in the fall of 2018, Belhassan falsely claimed that he would operate his annual MB Sports Camps at Curry College. Later, he announced that the camps would be held at Northeastern University.
Belhassan collected tuition and deposit payments totaling more than $380,000 from at least 303 families in Massachusetts and across the United States, as well as advance payments of $191,000 from an online payment company and a commercial finance company, authorities said.
Belhassan was arrested and charged in March 2021.
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An indictment said Belhassan operated MB Sports Camp at Curry College in Milton between 2013 and 2018. According to authorities, in the summer of 2019, Belhassan collected tuition or deposits from families, even though Curry College told him in September 2018 that he would not be able to use its campus in 2019 after he stopped paying the college.
Belhassan used a Texas payment services company to collect money from parents, authorities said. The company also bought registrations worth $121,124 in March 2019, the indictment said.
In April 2019, Belhassan told families that the 2019 camp would be held at Northeastern University, even though he had not contracted with them, according to media accounts. On July 1, 2019, Belhassan sent an email to families saying the camp was canceled.
To get funding from a cash advance company, Belhassan provided a forged contract showing Curry College agreed to host the sports camp, along with the false signature of a Curry College administrator, authorities said.
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While Belhassan told families he would try to get them refunds, he had already spent most of the tuition money on "various personal expenses, including vacations, casinos and adult entertainment," authorities said when he was indicted.
The grand jury indicted him on two counts of wire fraud for taking payments of $350 and $615 from two Massachusetts victims.
The wire fraud charge carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
U.S. Senior District Court Judge William G. Young scheduled sentencing for Jan. 11.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Florida man who ran sports camps at Curry College convicted of fraud
