David Izsak, a Chicago real estate pro more adept at playing the system than the property game, stands convicted of conning banks out of a cool $4 million through a web of deceit involving phony paperwork and falsified loans.
In a masterclass of mortgage fraud, Izsak, who's 48 and hails from the Chicago metropolis, operated his shady dealings through Premier Assets Inc. and Premier Properties Enterprises, Inc., companies based in Skokie, Illinois; where he played the game from 2005 to 2018, pulling a financial fast one on multiple lenders, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.
His strategy was falsifying lien releases to cover up unpaid loans and dupe new buyers, and at one point, he was audacious enough, to obtain more than half a dozen mortgages on the same property, time and again, without paying off the previous ones. This house of cards extended to the high seas as Izsak used fake tax returns to secure a loan for a yacht, the “Flying Lady”, later seized by federal hands in 2019.
The jury took seven days to sift through the evidence before dropping the hammer on Izsak, convicting him on ten counts, each fraud charge carrying a potential 30-year stint behind bars, and Judge Manish S. Shah penciled in sentencing for mid-summer next year, as reported by federal officials. The government aims to claw back the ill-gotten gains, around $4 million worth, once Izsak's fate is sealed.
The takedown was the work of a federal tag team with Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Robert W. “Wes” Wheeler, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI Chicago Field Office, and Ruth M. Mendonça, Inspector-in-Charge of the Chicago Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at the helm; with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Patrick J. King, Jr., and Elly M. Peirson leading the courtroom charge.
