NJ Attorney’s Office Charges Mordechai Weiss With Fraud

The New Jersey Attorney’s Office charged Monsey, New York-based multifamily investor Mordechai Weiss with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Prosecutors brought a criminal case against Weiss on March 26, according to a letter filed in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey. The charges relate to a conspiracy to commit wire fraud, but the specific allegations are unclear.

Weiss has a plea agreement hearing set for April 9 in Trenton, which suggests that Weiss and prosecutors have already reached a plea deal.

Weiss’s attorney declined to comment.

Weiss was a relatively unknown investor who went on an apartment-buying spree across the U.S. in the early 2020s. Weiss secured seven loans from Fannie or Freddie to buy 11 apartment complexes across the country. According to one court filing, he owned thousands of units across the country, including 700 units in Houston as of April 2023.

Documents show the properties were often listed as purchased by or assigned to his wife, Basya Weiss. But the investor ran into trouble when they could no longer meet their debt payments.

Weiss became an early target of the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Housing Finance Agency’s sprawling investigation into commercial mortgage fraud after lender Berkadia filed an explosive lawsuit against the investor in the summer of 2025, according to people familiar with the matter.

The lender alleged that Weiss and title company Cross Bridge Title worked together to create a sham transaction for a 326-unit multifamily property in Houston. Weiss, Cross Bridge and another participant in the alleged fraud showed Berkadia bogus documents that placed the purchase price at $97.8 million, causing Berkadia to provide Weiss with a $69 million loan.

Berkadia claims the property was actually purchased for $67 million. And when the property was appraised at $44 million, it left Berkadia with a $24 million loss, according to the lawsuit.

Weiss also ran into trouble in Louisville, Kentucky. Fannie initiated a lawsuit against his property, the tallest apartment tower in the city’s downtown, just two months after Greystone provided a $42 million loan.

Weiss could face up to 30 years in prison, according to sentencing guidelines. U.S. Judge Robert Kirsch, who previously presided over major mortgage fraud cases against investors Moshe Silber and Aron Puretz, will oversee Weiss’s case.

The DOJ and the FHFA have been investigating suspect commercial real estate transactions in recent years. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey was behind a majority of the cases in prosecutors’ push against mortgage fraud, but the related charges have been delayed because of legal questions over the office’s leadership.

In March 2025, President Donald Trump appointed his former personal lawyer, Alina Habba, to lead the office. But a New Jersey judge disqualified Habba for sidestepping Senate confirmation — and later disqualified her replacements, three prosecutors picked by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

U.S. District Court judge Renée Marie Bumb last week ordered Robert Frazer as New Jersey’s lead federal prosecutor, allowing criminal prosecutions to resume.