Real estate investor Boruch “Barry” Drillman was sentenced to five years of probation for his role in a $165 million fraud scheme involving multifamily and commercial mortgage loans between 2018 and 2020.
Drillman managed BRC Williamsburg Holdings LLC, which purchased multifamily property Williamsburg of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Troy Technology Holdings LLC, which purchased commercial property Troy Technology Park in Troy, Michigan. In March 2019, Williamsburg of Cincinnati was acquired for $70 million – but Drillman and his co-conspirators from Rhodium Capital Advisors presented a stolen identity to a lender and Fannie Mae with a purchase and sale contract for $95.85 million and other fraudulent documents. On March 8, 2019, Madison Title Agency performed two closings, one for the true $70 million sales price and another for the fraudulent $95.85 million sales price presented to the lender.
In September 2020, Troy Technology Park was acquired for $42.7 million. Drillman and his co-conspirators presented the lender with a fraudulent purchase and sale contract for $70 million, as and they also provided the lender and appraiser a fraudulent letter of intent to purchase the property from another party for $68.8 million and other fraudulent documents. To conceal the fraudulent nature of the transaction, Drillman and his co-conspirators arranged for a short-term $30 million loan, which was used to make it appear that they had the funds needed to close on the loan. On Sept. 25, 2020, Riverside Abstract performed two closings, one for the true $42.7 million sales price and another for the fraudulent $70 million sales price presented to the lender.
Drillman pleaded guilty in December 2023 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution. The Real Deal reports that while Drillman faced up to five years in prison, he received probation as US District Court Judge Robert Kirsch cited Drillman’s cooperation with investigators, his show of remorse and poor health, and the judge’s determination that Drillman was less culpable than his co-conspirators.
Nonetheless, Kirsch also mandated that Drillman pay a $250,000 fine and abide by special conditions including drug and alcohol tests and certain business and financial disclosures.
probation is not enough. when are we going to get tough on white collar criminals? Put them in jail with the regular criminals and not in the white collar facility in Pennsylvania where there are no fences and they can visit with their families in motels across the street.
I think he was let off easy. He should go to jail and provide restitution. Why would he get probation. Is the judge crazy?
He got off too lightly…. Meanwhile Ny AG Leticia James still free, mouthing off how she’s a victim of political (Trump) bullying. https://whitecollarfraud.com/2025/06/13/how-the-ny-times-spins-letitia-james-mortgage-fraud-investigation/
Why are they not barred from any licenses needed to do these jobs?? Probation for such an elaborate scheme is ridiculous
Obviously there is some type of funny business going on within the Courts to allow this criminal activity to be dismissed as a mere slap on the wrist!!!! First of all Identitiy was stolen, most likely wire fraud not to mention Co-conspirators working hand in hand to defaud Mortgage Industry. Judge had nerve to have remorse for this blatant disrespectful criminal! He left his tenants in chaos at his properties living in filthy conditions. This whole operation should have been in prisoned severing maximum time. The Judge should be disbarred for a lack of reasonable decision making!
Sounds like he had a better lawyer than all the others.
Dam! Crime does pay!
The judge may be in on some scam too, not sure, but very, very suspicious this insanely light sentence. The message is that crime pays very well, so keep doing crime cuz you might not get caught, and if you do, not much will happen to you.
Common criminals who often cause less damage to victims are given maximum sentences, YET, white collar criminals get a free smoothie and a loose roaming situation at a cush facility.
But we see clearly how our laws are NOT applied equally to all, and anyone familiar with U.S. history will know that.
The Financial sector is rife with criminals, and they are only remorseful when caught, but the system encourages them to continue to push the limits of the law and pass them because white collar criminals know that they have a nearly 90% success rate at not getting caught or getting very light sentences.
It still amazes me that only a handful of people went to jail over the 2008 recession meltdown that was engineered by the financial industries who knew that what they were doing would lead to a crash. It’s sickening.
The current administration is a case in point of unlawful and unconstitutional actions and a legal system that moves too slowly.
This administration actually is losing nearly all their cases, but the damage is often already done and the court rulings too late.
Many conservatives working in various agencies, including many lawyers, have refused to follow Trump’s illegal orders and have resigned, such a long list it’s ridiculous, but good for them for taking a stand.
But Trump finds others to carry out his illegal orders and to make unnecessarily cruel the few legal orders he is doing.
Very disturbing and fascist-minded are the ICE teams and cops who refuse to identify themselves, cover their faces, and often refuse to give agency identification in many situations, and give no phone numbers for people to contact to find the people being detained.
People have legal rights to get identification from those who are detaining them, but those laws are being broken. Many of the people making arrests appear to be untrained thugs (often very overweight but strong) who were deputized to round up people in very harsh ways. But there are now criminals mimicking the face masks and clothing of ICE and other law enforcement, and they are robbing people and physically harming them. This is because people are afraid to demand identification because there is no one (no courts) yet requiring it.
We have a GOP who now loves criminals and Trump giving so many pardons, with many of the pardoned now re-arrested for other crimes.
Many of Trump’s lawyers have been disbarred for their actions, so there is a tiny sliver of justice, but Trump just hires more UNethical people to assist him.
America has had many cycles of corruption, so it will take time to battle the corrupt.
Just remember that the GOP has always pushed for deregulation, and that opens the door for criminals. Yes, I want less confusing laws and less confusing regulations, and then I want those laws enforced aggressively and equally.
Strangely, laws and regulations are complicated because the rich and big businesses want endless loopholes inserted for them to evade the full effect of regulations.