Melissa Bailey File Photo
Marshall Asmar exiting the federal courthouse in April.
After raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars from a sprawling mortgage fraud conspiracy, three people will be spending several years in prison.
That’s thanks to sentences handed down this week by Chief U.S. District Judge Alvin Thompson in Hartford. He delivered the sentences to three members of a 15-person mortgage fraud ring that bilked government and private lenders about $10 million and left a trail of blight through New Haven and elsewhere.
Most of the accused conspirators pleaded guilty. Of the six who opted for a jury trial, one pleaded out after four days, four were found guilty, and one — New Haven Rabbi David Avigdor — walked after the jury couldn’t agree on the charges against him. He will stand trial a second time, starting Feb. 13.
Former New Haven Alderman and state legislator Morris Olmer was among the four found guilty. His testimony at his sentencing hearing this week led the judge to forestall his case for another week.
Meanwhile, the judge had little trouble handing down sentences to the other three.
Wendy Werner, a 46-year-old from Sarasota, FL, received a sentence of four years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay a fine of $100,000. Werner had the smallest role of those who stood trial; she made money by conspiring to sell properties at inflated prices.
New Haven landlord Marshall Asmar, a 40-year-old from Milford, received a sentence of 52 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
Rab Nawaz, a 48-year-old from Waterford, received seven and a half years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
Werner, Asmar, and Nawaz made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling homes a fraudulently inflated prices to people who had no intention of living in them.
The entire scheme involved about 29 houses in New Haven, New London, and elsewhere in Connecticut.
“Run Everything”
Moments after he was mugged on Whalley Avenue, a man ran into his attacker and confronted him.
Here’s what happened, according to police spokesman Officer Dave Hartman:
At 8:17 p.m. Thursday, as Officers Joseph Staffieri and Mike Koval were on their way to investigate a robbery at the corner of Whalley Avenue and the Boulevard, Officers Tyren Robinson and Matt Williams radioed that they had found a man lying on the ground, bleeding, near the Ella Grasso Boulevard and Goffe Street. The man told cops he had been on the Boulevard, just north of Whalley, when a man in a black ski mask confronted him.
“Run everything,” the mugger said, according to cops. That means hand over everything you’ve got.
The victim complied when he the mugger removed a gun from his waistband. He handed over his iPhone and walked away.
Minutes later, as he was walking near Anita Street, he saw the mugger. He confronted the armed man.
“Didn’t I tell you to keep walking up the street?” the mugger said, according to cops. The mugger swung at the man, who fought back. Then he heard someone say, “Get off my brother.” That’s when he was struck on the head by something. He fell to the ground, where two people kicked him. He had gotten up and was headed toward Goffe, when he heard three gunshots. He wasn’t hit, but fell to the ground, where police found him.
In other police news, according to Hartman:
At 7:35 a.m. on Thursday, Officer Paul Kenney responded to a report of a robbery at the International Package Store, at 578 Winchester Ave. The owner was inside counting money when two masked men entered. One hit the owner in the face while the other vaulted over the counter and grabbed about $200. The owner suffered minor injuries to his nose and mouth. A woman outside the store told cops the robbers looked like teenagers.
Officer David Totino was on his beat near Rowe and Atwater streets at 2:36 a.m. Friday when he heard six gunshots. He found a Colt .357 Python revolver — with six spent casings still in the gun — in front of 121 Pine St. His investigation found the gun had been taken in a burglary at a Milford home.
NHPD
Police arrested a man at his West Haven home at 6:30 a.m. Friday and charged him with perpetrating a Sept. 6 bank robbery at a Bank of America in New Haven. Police are crediting Detective Dan Sacco and Officer David Runlett with a successful investigation. The Orange police department has secured an arrest warrant for the same man for a bank robbery in that town on Sept. 10.
Crime Map
Click here for a list of major crimes for Thursday, Sept. 22. Click on the image below to see those incidents placed on a citywide map.
NHPD
For block-by-block year-to-date crime information, plus daily crime maps, check out the Independent’s Crime Log.