Portland Duo Sentenced for Running Real Estate Investment Fraud Scheme

by | May 1, 2026 | 8 comments

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The owners of a Portland real estate investment firm received prison sentences for coordinating a $17 million multi-year fraud scheme.

According to court documents, Robert D. Christensen and Anthony M. Matric told individual investors that they would use their investments to purchase and renovate undervalued residential real estate properties. The pair also stated they would rent the properties to generate income and refinance the properties to extract any increased value from the renovations.

Furthermore, the pair further misled investors into believing they would be repaid their full principal investment along with interest as high as 8% to 15% and a large lump sum payout, all within periods as short as 30 to 90 days.

From January 2019 through June 2023, ran their scheme, using new investments to repay earlier investors to keep their business afloat. When they were unable to raise enough money from new investors, they submitted loan applications with false financial information to different commercial lenders and based on their misrepresentations, received millions of dollars in loans.

In total, Christensen and Matic’s two schemes defrauded individual investors out of more than $10 million and commercial lenders out of more than $7 million.

Christensen was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release and Matic was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release.

8 Comments

  1. sentences are way too short for the crimes. that’s why these criminals take the risk of committing these crimes.
    we all pay for these losses in the end.

    Reply
    • I agree 100%. These crimes have real victims and the short prison times make the gamble worth it.

      Reply
  2. Ridiculously short sentences, for millions of dollars of fraud.

    Reply
  3. They should run for president of the US.

    Reply
  4. It’s definitely worth the risk to try, they can’t catch everyone

    Reply
  5. This seems to me a very short jail term for crooked and dishonest deeds.
    What about all the pain and suffering they caused?

    I think they should be put away for a long time and if they have any
    thing of value it should be sold and given to the people they cheated!

    Reply
  6. The con men got off easy with those light sentences.

    Reply
  7. What happened to the money? I hope they had to pay it back.

    Reply

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