A grand jury has indicted Vision & Beyond and co-founders Stanislav Grinberg and Peter Gizunterman for a $50 million bank fraud conspiracy.
The Israeli entrepreneurs allegedly double-pledged properties to obtain multiple loans and worked with two title company employees to hide information from lenders and investors.
Grinberg and Gizunterman, who met while serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, founded Vision & Beyond in 2019 and acquired 100 apartments and residential properties in and around Cincinnati, with the goal of renovating the properties.
But the pair allegedly started by double pledging properties to get loans. They also inflated financial information such as rent rolls to obtain larger loans than they should have received from lenders, according to the criminal complaint.
Then their alleged fraud went further. Grinberg and Gizunterman allegedly used two title company employees, Keya Hamilton and Kelly West to refinance properties, but did not use the funds to pay off the existing loans and mortgages.
In December 2022, Grinberg and Gizunterman secured two loans from Corevest Financial totaling more than $36 million to refinance 30 mortgages tied to 60 multi-family properties in the Cincinnati area.
But Vision & Beyond stopped paying the loan balance in 2024 and the loans went into default. Grinberg and Gizunterman told the loans’ special servicer that they stopped paying the loans because they had to reenlist with the Israeli Defense Force to fight in the war in Gaza.
According to the indictment, Grinberg and Gizunterman only used the loan proceeds to pay off a fraction of the prior mortgages.
Instead, more than $273,000 was allegedly paid directly to Hamilton, and about $7 million was paid to a title company controlled by Hamilton and used by Vision & Beyond. About $6 million was paid directly to Vision & Beyond’s account and $2.7 million was paid to another bank, according to the indictment.
Grinberg was arrested in March, but his indictment was delayed. He is currently in jail in Butler County, Ohio. Ginsburg and his alleged co-conspirators are charged with conspiring to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, making false statements and money laundering.
Vision & Beyond’s properties in Cincinnati have fallen into disrepair, leading with severe water leaks and piled up trash.
The indictment is the latest in a broader investigation into commercial mortgage fraud by the Department of Justice and the Federal Home Finance Agency. Many of the participants in these fraud schemes bought residential properties in the Midwest such as Cincinnati where property values were relatively inexpensive.
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