A Connecticut real estate agent was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for his role in a long-standing fraud scheme, manipulating short sale real estate transactions for his own profit. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, Sheldon Haag, 34, from Glastonbury, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud back in June 2023 and is now facing the consequences of his actions, which involved the orchestration of fraudulent property sales and renovation scams.
Working alongside James Macchio, another agent who is awaiting sentencing after his own guilty plea, Haag utilized straw buyers to purchase properties at artificially low prices, properties that were owned by the clients of their brokerage—including federal agencies, banks, and other mortgage holders—Haag and Macchio’s inside knowledge as the owners’ brokers was exploited to depress sale prices to maximize their profits from later flipping the properties despite the fact that this was a clear conflict of interest and reprehensible breach of trust. Together, they created a shell company, framed as a construction firm, to further defraud their clients with inflated renovation bids, subsequently hiring cheaper contractors and pocketing the difference.
Their ploy came undone after diligent investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, and other federal offices, with the acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy announcing the sentence. Haag has been ordered to forfeit $277,331 and will face two years of supervised release after his prison term, restitution is yet to be determined…