Allegedly Defrauded Real Estate Professionals Who Paid a Fee to Become a “Preferred Expert;" In Separate Scheme, Allegedly Used Stolen Identities from Restaurant Customers and Others to Obtain Credit Lines
Baltimore, Maryland - A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment late yesterday against Joseph R. Dominici, age 29, of Annapolis, Maryland, on wire fraud charges arising from a telemarketing scheme to defraud real estate professionals around the country who paid to advertise on websites owned by Dominici. The superseding indictment also re-alleges previous charges arising from a counterfeit credit card scheme.
The indictment was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Brian Murphy of the United States Secret Service - Baltimore Field Office; Anne Arundel County Police Chief Tim Altomare; Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Wes Adams; Special Agent in Charge Andre Watson of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); and Chief Henry P. Stawinski of the Prince George’s County Police Department.
Dominici owned and operated JJ&M Enterprises, LLC, an on-line business based in Annapolis, Maryland, operating to provide leads to real estate professionals concerning potential homebuyers. Dominici registered two websites which he and JJ&M used to conduct business: BuyerHomeSite.com and FreeHomeFind.com
According to the 14 count indictment, the websites purported to contain active listings of homes for sale, and allowed potential homebuyers to browse home listings in a selected geographic area. The websites also represented to realtors or loan officers that they could pay to become a “preferred expert" in each of the geographic regions that they chose. If a prospective home buyer (user) searched the websites for properties in an area where a real estate professional had paid to become the “preferred expert," the websites displayed an ad that included the real estate professional’s photograph and contact information. For a monthly fee of approximately $299, the websites would grant a real estate professional exclusive access to all leads generated on the websites associated with the real estate professional’s assigned geographic area.
The indictment alleges that from on or before March 6, 2014 to Oct. 20, 2015, Dominici represented to real estate professionals that such leads included personal information provided by a potential homebuyer, where in fact, the leads sent to the real estate professionals contained fictitious information created by Dominici and individuals employed by JJ&M. Dominici created fictitious identities, including names, email addresses and cell phone numbers. He provided cell phones to a JJ&M employee which had the name and phone number of a fictitious identity taped to the back. Dominici also posted false and duplicative “testimonials" from “satisfied" customers on the websites.
Dominici allegedly caused employees to make unsolicited telephone sales calls to many thousands of real estate professionals located all over the United States. Dominici provided JJ&M employees with scripts and talking points to use in soliciting real estate professionals to pay to become the “preferred expert" for their area on the websites. As a result of these sales calls, more than 1,000 real estate professionals agreed to pay approximately $299 per month to be advertised as preferred experts.
As a result of this telemarketing fraud scheme, Dominici allegedly obtained and attempted to obtain more than $895,568.31 from real estate professionals. The indictment seeks forfeiture of this amount.
Dominici faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison on each of 11 counts of wire fraud in the telemarketing fraud scheme. An initial appearance for Dominici is expected to be scheduled for next week.
The superseding indictment re-alleges a separate counterfeit credit card scheme in which Dominici obtained stolen or otherwise compromised credit card numbers from several sources. Co-conspirator Christina Price, a server at a restaurant in Gambrills, Maryland, used electronic devices known as skimmers to fraudulently obtain the credit card information of restaurant customers who paid by credit card. Price then provided this stolen customer information to Dominici for use in producing fraudulently re-encoded credit cards. Dominici and co-conspirator Carlos Ledbetter, an employee of JJ&M, used special equipment to encode the stolen account information onto stored value cards and then used the fraudulently re-encoded credit and stored value cards to obtain extensions of credit from banks and credit unions.
Dominici faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for conspiring to commit bank fraud; 10 years in prison for access device fraud; and a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison consecutive to any other sentence for aggravated identity theft, arising from the credit card fraud scheme.
Carlos M. Ledbetter, age 29, of District Heights, Maryland, and Christina O. Price, age 22, of Bowie, Maryland, previously pleaded guilty to their participation in the credit card fraud scheme. U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz sentenced Ledbetter to six months in prison, and scheduled Price’s sentencing for May 2, 2016 at 9:30 a.m. Dominici has pleaded not guilty to charges arising from the credit card fraud scheme.
An indictment is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the U.S. Secret Service, Anne Arundel County Police Department, HSI Baltimore, Prince George’s County Police Department and Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Myers and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Tang, who are prosecuting the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
