LI-based real estate executive sentenced to 51 months for fraud

Elviston Ramasir, the former president of Long Island-based real estate company Home Free Realty, has been sentenced to 51 months in federal prison for two separate fraudulent real estate schemes, the U.S. attorney’s office said today.

Elviston Ramasir, 28, stole $1.5 million from an investor by promising huge rates of return in properties that Ramasir promised to buy but never did. He later used Craigslist to solicit renters for two properties he owned,– one in Ozone Park, New York and the other in Long Beach, New York– then kept their money and didn’t allow them to occupy the properties.

Ramasir pleaded guilty in January this year and was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin. In addition to the prison term, he was also sentenced to three years’ supervised release and ordered to pay more than $1.4 million in restitution. Illegal cash proceeds from the schemes will also be forfeited. [AP via WSJ]