Moshe Silber’s Plea For No Restitution Denied by Judge

Moshe Silber is out of prison, but he is staring down a major financial hole.

The investor and his business partner, Fred Schulman, were ordered to pay $21.7 million in restitution to their lender, JLL. The pair pleaded guilty over a year ago to a mortgage fraud scheme in which they obtained an inflated loan for a 976-unit rental property in Cincinnati.

A lawyer for Silber and Schulman argued the duo did not owe any restitution to JLL, claiming that employees of the lender were well aware of the fraud.

The defendants pleaded guilty in 2024 to a conspiracy to commit wire fraud charge and were sentenced earlier this year.

But how much they owed was undetermined, and the sides had vastly different numbers in mind. In December 2025, prosecutors argued the number should be $30 million. Silber and Schulman’s side said JLL should be awarded no restitution.

“High ranking executives of JLL were complicit in, and facilitated, the Cincinnati fraudulent loan transactions,” Silber and Schulman’s attorneys wrote in a filing. “As a result, JLL is precluded from asserting that it was a “victim” of the defendants’ conduct.”

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Kirsch of New Jersey did not buy this argument. “[T]o make such a finding that would resolve defendants of their substantial restitution obligations,” he wrote in a 25-page ruling in late December.

Silber and Schulman’s case was among the first in a broader crackdown on commercial mortgage fraud by the Department of Justice and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Silber, Schulman and their co-conspirator, Boruch Drillman, embarked on a scheme in 2019 to buy an apartment complex for $70 million before using a stolen identity to essentially “flip” the property to themselves for $96 million.

The higher purchase price served as a key metric to secure a $74 million loan from JLL, which then sold the loan to Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored agency that buys loans from private lenders.

The true victim

The two sides bickered over where to pin blame.

JLL was not a victim of the fraud, lawyer Jerome Ballarotto argued on behalf of Silber and Schulman.

JLL repurchased the loan from Fannie Mae in 2024 for $81 million, the defense argued, knowing it would result in a significant loss, for two reasons: JLL had to repair its relationship with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the firm became aware that two executives handling the loan were complicit in the fraud.

But Silber and Schulman failed to provide any documentation backing these claims, Kirsch said, and there was no indication that the two JLL executives were ever investigated by law enforcement over the Cincinnati transaction.

In his ruling, Kirsch deemed the true victim of the fraud to be Fannie Mae. He said JLL was not a victim since it repurchased the loan from Fannie Mae knowing the loan was in distress and the property was in disrepair.

Kirsch said JLL could still be awarded restitution because it compensated the true victim, Fannie Mae, for its loss by purchasing the loan.

The restitution came down to $21.7 million after fees, escrow money paid and the sale of the property for $60 million.

The elder investor

Schulman had argued that if the judge did award restitution, he should pay much less.

Kirsch had gone easier on Schulman at the sentencing hearing in March 2025, allowing him to self-surrender and sentencing him to just one year in prison. (Drillman was given no prison time. Silber was sentenced to 30 months in prison, but was moved to a halfway house in December just nine months into his sentence.)

This time, Kirsch was not sympathetic to Schulman, who is in his 70s.

Kirsch noted that Schulman was a lawyer, banker and venture capitalist who built a successful career and had claimed to be a mentor and father figure to Silber, who was nearly four decades younger.

“Despite ‘clearly being the adult’ in that relationship and well versed in the fields of law and finance, Schulman did not use his fatherly role and wealth of experience to advise Silber,” Kirsch said.

Instead, he undertook an “active and integral” role in the fraud, Kirsch added.

During his sentencing hearing, Kirsch allowed Schulman to surrender to prison based on certain upcoming family responsibilities, including taking care of his ailing wife.

But the federal judge noted in his ruling that Schulman took advantage of the court’s generous spirit… “over and over and over again” by frequently traveling to the Hamptons instead of finding care for his ailing wife.

Schulman and Silber’s lawyer did not return a request for comment. JLL also did not return a request for comment.