Jacob Deutsch, who was sentenced to five years behind bars, saw his prison sentence, fine and related penalties wiped away by an executive pardon signed last week, the Hartford Courant reported. Trump provided no explanation for the decision.
The case revolved around a years-long attempt by Deutsch and his cousin, Aron Deutsch, to acquire dozens of apartment buildings using falsified financial data.
Federal prosecutors say the cousins acquired 17 multifamily properties in Hartford between 2016 and 2021, relying on hundreds of forged documents to secure 24 separate mortgages from lenders, including four banks and secondary market players such as Fannie Mae. The portfolio stretched from Washington Street south of downtown through the West End to Asylum Hill.
Jacob Deutsch was accused of devising an elaborate web of false rental receipts, leases, utility bills and banking information to inflate the occupancy rates and income of multiple properties. One of the focuses was a 24-unit complex at 16 Evergreen Avenue, which prosecutors say was completely vacant when Deutsch presented it as fully leased at above-market rents.
To sell the story, Deutsch admitted to inventing tenants, forging signatures on leases and stocking empty apartments with furniture and clothing before lenders’ inspections. When lenders pressed for more evidence, prosecutors said he provided falsified electricity and gas bills and fabricated bank deposits that showed rental income that did not exist.
Aron Deutsch, based in Monsey, New York, avoided jail but was fined $1 million and placed on five years’ probation – sentences that were wiped away by the clemency. Prosecutors said he helped purchase checks that were used to back up the fake banking information.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office described the scheme as shifting “the risk of catastrophic loss” to lenders and the mortgage-backed securities market. The conspiracy began to unravel after federal housing officials labeled Evergreen Avenue’s loan file as “completely false.”
Despite the scale of the fraud, the case landed uneasily in a stable Hartford market. Prosecutors acknowledged that rising property values and stable rents limited losses, although they estimated damages to lenders at about $3.5 million. Defense attorneys argued that the properties ultimately sold at break-even prices.
— Holden Walter Warner
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