Iranian National Sentenced In Texas Home Flipping Scam

The Austin American-Statesman reports that Firooz Deljavan, the leader of a sprawling Austin-area real estate scheme that prosecutors say defrauded banks of millions of dollars, was sentenced in a Texas Federal Court Tuesday to five years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit bank, wire and mail fraud. According to the story:

• Deljavan, 56, was the lead defendant among 25 real estate professionals and buyers indicted in 2004. They were accused of submitting fraudulent documents in buying dozens of homes in the Austin area, misrepresenting the value with bogus appraisals and then selling the houses to associates who had secured about $15 million in mortgages. [...] Deljavan's lawyer, Gerardo Montalvo of Houston, said that his client's plea saved the government money in avoiding a trial.

***

• Deljavan, an Iranian citizen, fled Austin with his wife, Rosemary Rios, and his brother after the FBI and IRS began investigating them in 2004. Deljavan and Rios were extradited to Austin last year after they were arrested at a border crossing between Turkey and Iran. Turkish authorities refused to extradite Deljavan's brother, a Turkish citizen. Rios pleaded guilty this year to making a false statement to obtain a real estate loan and was sentenced to time served. In addition to Deljavan's brother, one other defendant in the case is a fugitive. One defendant committed suicide after he was indicted, and charges against another were dismissed.

Of the 21 others involved, all were previously sentenced; the two longest sentences assessed were for two years.

For more, see Austin real estate exec gets 5 years in house-flipping scheme (Sentencing guidelines had suggested minimum of 21-plus years).