A convicted Florida felon pleaded guilty to running a real estate investment fraud scheme that raised more than $50 million.
Jean Joseph, also known as “Jon,” of Boca Raton, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. His co-defendant, Janalie Camille Bingham, also known as Janalie Camille Joseph, previously pleaded guilty to wire fraud.
According to court records, Joseph and Bingham formed Wells Real Estate Investment LLC in or around 2017 and operated the company together, with Bingham as CEO. Beginning in approximately 2019, Joseph and Bingham concealed Joseph’s involvement in the business after he became a convicted felon in an unrelated wire fraud case.
Despite beginning to serve a prison sentence in June 2020, Joseph continued to direct aspects of the scheme from prison. Joseph and Bingham had opened a bank account in the name of Wells Real Estate in October 2019 with Bingham as the sole authorized signer, due to Joseph’s pending criminal prosecution. But Joseph directed the account’s activities while incarcerated.
From approximately 2019 through 2024, Joseph and Bingham solicited investors to purchase promissory notes issued by Wells Real Estate. They falsely represented that investor funds would be used to acquire and improve residential and commercial real estate and that the notes were backed by valuable real estate holdings.
However, only a small portion of investor funds was used for real estate. Instead, Joseph diverted approximately $28 million into speculative equities trading.
Joseph and Bingham also falsely claimed the investment notes were secured by a real estate portfolio purportedly worth as much as $450 million. In truth, neither Wells Real Estate nor the defendants owned sufficient real estate assets to secure the investments.
Joseph and Bingham further misled investors by claiming that Wells Real Estate did not pay commissions on note sales. But the company paid up to 15% in commissions, distributing approximately $8 million in investor funds to sales personnel.
To sustain the scheme, the defendants used funds from newer investors to make more than $8 million in Ponzi-style payments to earlier investors, without disclosing the source of those payments. They also used more than $2 million in investor funds for personal expenses, including a down payment on a $1.95 million home that they used as their primary residence. The home was acquired through a limited liability company and was later transferred into Bingham’s name.
Bingham’s sentencing is scheduled for May 8, and Joseph’s sentencing is set for June 4.
“In South Florida, if you build a scheme on deception and misuse investor funds, you will be investigated and you will be prosecuted,” said US Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida.
0 Comments