Great Neck Couple Sentenced To Prison For Bank, Medicaid Fraud

A husband and wife from Great Neck were sentenced to prison on Friday for committing bank and Medicaid fraud, according to United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Joseph Atias, 54, was sentenced to 40 months in prison and Sofia Atias, 48, was sentenced to 28 months. They were also ordered to pay $465,965 in forfeiture and $49,956 in restitution.

“Joseph and Sofia Atias committed fraud schemes to try to get out from under mortgage debt and to fraudulently obtain Medicaid funds, essentially flaunting the laws to which we all must adhere,” United States Attorney Richard P. Donoghue said in a press release.

Bank Fraud Scheme

Official say before Joseph and Sofia Atias sold their Hempstead property to the adjacent Sacred Heart Academy, they sold the home for $480,000 in a short sale to Bank of America to discharge their mortgage dept. Joseph and Sofia Atias, along with their attorney, concealed Sacred Heart Aracemy’s pending offer while negotiating the short sale with the bank, officials say. They then submitted a fraudulent contract of sale and other false documents representing that they did not have funds to pay off the mortgages in full, officials say. Joseph and Sofia Atias used a relative as a “straw buyer” of the property to create the appearance of an arms-length sale. The straw buyer then sold the property to Sacred Heart Academy for $925,000, fraudulently earning them about half a million dollars in profit.

Medicaid Fraud Scheme

Joseph and Sofia Atias fraudulently concealed their self-employment income and available cash resources to obtain Medicaid funds from 2009 to 2015, officials say. The funds they concealed included trust fund monies and the $465,000 in proceeds from the bank fraud scheme.

“In a clear case of double dipping, the defendants convinced the lending institution of their eligibility to qualify for a short sale on their property, recruited a relative to serve as a straw buyer for the property, and profited from the funds of a subsequent sale of the property,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney said.

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