Scheme Designed To Extort Investment Property, Money From Two Cops & Others Thru Threats Relating To Non-Existent Criminal Tax Probe Ends In Prison Sentences For Mortgage Broker (12 Months), Lawyer/CPA (27 Months)

From the Office of the U.S. Attorney (Trenton, New Jersey):

• A Millstone, New Jersey, man was sentenced [] to 12 months in prison for conspiring to extort victims out of money and property by falsely stating they were the subjects of IRS criminal investigations, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
  
  Robert G. Cusic Jr., 46, previously pleaded guilty [...] to an information charging him with conspiracy to commit extortion under fear of economic harm. [...]
  
  According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
  
  Cusic, Thomas G. Frey, 55, of Edison, New Jersey, and another conspirator (identified only as CC-1), schemed to extort and to defraud four victims, including two police officers, by falsely representing to the victims that they were the subjects of criminal investigations, principally by the IRS, in connection with investment properties some of them owned. Cusic falsely represented that while at a property formerly owned by one of the victims, Cusic encountered two IRS special agents (SA-1 and SA-2) who questioned him extensively about some of the victims.
  
  Frey, a lawyer and certified public accountant, falsely told the victims he had ongoing communications with SA-1 about the purported investigation and had a special relationship with SA-1. Frey told the victims if they paid up to $20,000 each, he would call SA-1 and have the investigation converted from a criminal tax investigation to an IRS “desk audit,” a civil matter. Frey and CC-1 falsely stated that if the victims did not retain his services and pay the fee, the investigation would likely result in the arrest of certain victims.
  
  Cusic admitted the goal of the conspiracy was to obtain approximately $80,000 in fees for Frey and to cause the victims to sell certain of the properties to Frey and others. Cusic stood to receive a portion of any fees paid by the victims, a percentage of the sale price of each of the investment properties sold to Frey and others, and property management fees on any of the properties sold.
  
  In addition to the prison term, Judge [Anne E.] Thompson sentenced Cusic to serve three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay a $3,000 fine.
  
  Frey previously pleaded guilty [...] to two counts of an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit extortion under fear of economic harm and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He was sentenced on April 27, 2015, to 27 months in prison.

Source: Millstone, New Jersey, Mortgage Broker Sentenced To One Year In Prison For Extortion Conspiracy.