Moshe Silber Heads to Halfway House

Moshe Silber, a key player in a major mortgage fraud scheme, has been released from prison and is moving into a halfway house in New York.

Silber was sentenced in March to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. As of this summer, Silber was incarcerated in a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut.

Silber is still listed under the supervision of the Bureau of Prisons and is at a Residential Reentry Center, otherwise known as a halfway house, according to the agency’s website. The exact location of his halfway house is unclear.His release date is January 2027.

Hiten Samtani of the Promote first posted on X about the news on Thursday, citing a post in English and Yiddish from the Orthodox Jewish news service, CBN. It mentioned that Silber is heading to a halfway house through the First Steps Act, which was passed under President Donald Trump in 2018 and offers non-violent offenders a reduction in sentencing for participation in certain programs.

Silber will be returning to Monsey, New York, to celebrate Hanukkah with his family, according Yiddish text in the post, which refers to Silber as “tzadikah,” or “charitable” in Hebrew.

“Welcome Home Moshe Silber,” it said in English.

Attorneys for Silber did not immediately return a request to comment.

Silber was among the first to be charged in a probe into commercial mortgage fraud by the Department of Justice, Federal Housing Finance Agency and other government departments. The investigation has focused on a variety of schemes that allowed borrowers to obtain larger loans from lenders than they otherwise would have received.

Silber and his co-conspirators duped their lenders, JLL and Fannie Mae, into providing a $74 million loan for a 976-unit apartment complex in Cincinnati.

As part of the scheme, Silber and his conspirators acquired the property, the Williamsburg of Cincinnati, for $70 million in 2019. But, Silber and his partners used a stolen identity and bogus documents to show Fannie Mae and JLL the property had been purchased for $95 million. The inflated fraudulent price caused Fannie and JLL to provide a $74 million loan.

As a result, Silber was able to secure a loan for more than he paid for the property.

Silber, who led Rhodium Capital and once controlled at least 11,000 multifamily units, pleaded guilty in 2024 along with his co-conspirator, Fred Schulman, who was sentenced to just one year in prison. Another one of his co-conspirators, Boruch Drillman, received no prison time.

Silber is also dealing with separate criminal charges in Pennsylvania. The Allegheny County District Attorney’s office claims Silber allegedly diverted funds from an apartment project Silber’s group owned outside of Pittsburgh.

Silber’s former real estate companies are under the control of an independent fiduciary, who is seeking to sell the apartments through bankruptcy. During that process, Silber filed for personal bankruptcy in September, claiming he owned no property, assets, or income.