ROCHESTER — A Buffalo mortgage dealer pleaded guilty Friday and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in a case involving Morgan Management, an improvement firm that owns heaps of apartments and houses in Buffalo, different upstate cities and more than a dozen states. Patrick Ogiony has been a main at Aurora Capital Advisors LLC while he took part in schemes to make condo complexes look greater worthwhile than they truely were so that they may be refinanced for better quantities. Mortgage agents are paid based on a percent of the mortgages they help arrange. An indictment released in May alleged that four businessmen, Ogiony among them, inflated hire rolls and profits statements and conspired to make vacant flats look occupied by using leaving shoes out of doors the doors, as an example. The goal changed into to trick creditors into believing the complexes had greater tenants than they genuinely did. Ogiony, 35, pleaded guilty to one remember of conspiracy to devote bank fraud. In doing so, he became the second defendant to plead responsible in the case. Kevin Morgan, who had been a vice president of Morgan Management, pleaded responsible in December to the identical charge. Morgan is a nephew of company founder Robert C. Morgan. Like Kevin Morgan, Ogiony is now assisting prosecutors and marketers with the investigation. The terms of his responsible plea require him to offer complete and truthful records approximately any mortgage fraud, bank fraud or twine fraud he is aware of approximately. Both guys have been allowed to stay unfastened.
In a deal much like the only Morgan labored out with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Ogiony faces as much as five years in prison and a $250,000 exceptional, however his prison time could be reduced to much less than three years if prosecutors are pleased along with his cooperation, in step with information that U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford study into the report.
While Robert Morgan has not been charged, Kevin Morgan said as he pleaded responsible that his illegal acts took place “on the route of my uncle.” As he admitted guilt, Ogiony said he had been “told by way of my agency” at Aurora Capital Advisors to participate in efforts to make the apartment complexes look greater profitable. Ogiony’s corporation turned into Frank Giacobbe, the proprietor and one of the closing defendants within the case. Giacobbe has pleaded now not guilty. The final closing defendant is Todd Morgan, the son of Robert Morgan and a former Morgan Management government. Ogiony’s attorney, Joseph LaTona of Buffalo, later refused to touch upon whether or not Ogiony has data on Giacobbe, Robert Morgan, or others. A legal professional for Robert Morgan, John Speranza of Rochester, attended the listening to Friday. He, too, refused to comment for The Buffalo News. The News commenced reporting in 2017 approximately the unusually extreme values on a few mortgages supplied to Morgan houses. The News discovered on the time that federal research became underway. The indictments announced ten months ago rocked Morgan Management, that’s transitioning into a successor enterprise known as Grand Atlas Property Management. Some property has been offered. The sale of homes in Texas caused a lawsuit wherein Herbert Morgan asserts that his brother, Robert, did no longer provide him together with his proportion of the proceeds. Lawyers for Robert Morgan say in court papers that Herbert Morgan misunderstands the agreement between the 2 and that Robert Morgan has performed not anything mistaken.
Meanwhile, some Morgan-owned complexes have long past onto watchlists for properties in threat of default. One lender, Steeprock Capital, is listed in court papers related to Ogiony’s plea as a victim of the fraud conspiracy. Steeprock wants to seize and sell three of the Morgan Management residences it helped finance, the Raintree Island apartment complicated inside the Town of Tonawanda and two complexes in Syracuse’s suburbs. Two Morgan-related entities have sued to block Steeprock’s motion.
