The basement of Asmar’s “rehabbed” 211 Lloyd St.
Marshall Asmar’s name finally appeared on a federal indictment describing a massive New Haven housing scam — and he ended up under arrest.
Asmar has been buying dilapidated houses in poor New Haven neighborhoods for years. He got in trouble recently and declared bankruptcy, with millions of dollars in debt and complaints from city housing inspectors.
It turns out he was in even more trouble than that. The Connecticut U.S. Attorney’s office announced Wednesday that the feds have arrested the 40-year-old property flipper and accused him of playing a role in one of the biggest financial scams to hit New Haven’s neighborhoods in years: a ring of realtors, investors, straw buyers, appraisers and lawyers (including a West Haven police commissioner and a New Haven rabbi) who allegedly put together fake real estate deals. They allegedly engineered sham sales at wildly inflated prices, ripped off private and federal government mortgage lenders for millions of dollars, and pocketed the profits. The neighborhoods suffered, too, as abandoned or neglected houses dragged down blocks struggling to recover from blight.
Asmar’s alleged role: Pretending to sell rundown houses to fake buyers for up to 10 times the real price and helping prepare documents falsely claiming to have fixed up the properties (like the Fair Haven and Newhallville houses pictured in this story).
The feds charged Asmar with eight counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and four counts of making false statements.
He was arrested on Aug. 20. Like other major figures in the case, he pleaded not guilty. He was released on a $250,000 bond.
The feds first publicly described the alleged operation on June 17. (Read about that here.) They didn’t mention Asmar’s name at the time. It didn’t appear in any of the court documents.
Asmar’s gift to Newhallville, on Hazel Street.
It’s unclear whether the feds had hoped to obtain his participation in the case in return for a plea bargain. (The U.S. Attorney’s office declined comment on the timing of the arrest.)
Asmar’s name did appear, though, on the land records associated with transactions listed in the original indictment. Reached twice by cellphone this summer and asked about those transactions, the unmarried 1988 Danbury High School graduate said he was “too busy” to talk and hung up.
Some of his tenants said in interviews that he’s been a good landlord. City officials say that he has failed to perform required repairs on some of the homes.
Click here to read a previous story on Asmar and his collapsed empire.
And click here to read the latest version of the feds’ indictment in the scam case. It now includes Marshall Asmar’s name, repeatedly.