A former Connecticut attorney with two previous fraud convictions has pleaded guilty in another fraud case involving the acquisition of mortgages.
Mark Pagani, 60, of Bolton, pleaded guilty yesterday in New Haven federal court to fraud and tax evasion, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office. Pagani, who was previously a practicing attorney with a law office in Wethersfield, had waived his right to be indicted.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Pagani conspired with another person from 2013 to at least August 2015 to defraud a victim investor of more than $1 million. The U.S. attorney’s office and court documents identified the other person only as “K.S.” and noted that K.S. has since died.
K.S. arranged investment deals with the victim, the statement said, including the purported acquisition of mortgages on properties. Pagani then drafted documents for certain investment deals, accepted funds from the victim and held the funds in accounts he controlled. Pagani also transferred funds to entities controlled by K.S. and others, the statement said.
Prosecutors allege that by the time the victim investor made a third investment to acquire mortgages on properties in Springfield, Massachusetts, and Middletown, Connecticut, Pagani knew that the first two investments had not occurred and that the third investment was not legitimate.
For the third investment, the victim wired more than $1.3 million to an account Pagani controlled, according to the statement, and these funds were commingled with other funds. A portion of these funds was sent by Pagani to an entity for the benefit of K.S, according to the statement.
To conceal the fraud and to create the appearance that it was a legitimate investment, Pagani wired false interest payments to the victim, the statement said.
Prosecutors also said that Pagani paid for personal and other expenses using his law firm account for the 2014-2017 tax years and underreported his income on his federal tax returns, resulting in a tax loss of $181,702.
In addition to pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of tax evasion, Pagani agreed to pay restitution of $1,055,092.50 to the victim investor and $181,702 in tax to the IRS, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 15.
Pagani was previously convicted for his role in hiding assets from creditors in the wide-ranging Colonial Realty fraud case from the 1990s that, among others, involved Benjamin Sisti and his son, Kevin Sisti, who died in 2016. Pagani, Kevin Sisti, Selim Zherka and others were convicted in 2015 in another real estate scheme.
