An Irving man, 62-year-old Michael Shaub, has entered a guilty plea on a charge of bankruptcy fraud this Tuesday. Shaub was accused of making multiple bankruptcy filings over the span of a decade in a bid to evade foreclosure on his home, detailed the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Leigha Simonton, as per the U.S. Department of Justice.
Schaub and his spouse purchased a residence in Irving, Texas, with a mortgage loan. Starting in January 2012, he sought protection under a Chapter 13 voluntary bankruptcy petition, which was dismissed due to failure in timely payments, per court documents. The following years saw an additional five filings, the final of which resulted in a two-year ban on further filings, in effect through May 2021, however, less than five months after that, Schaub filed another under his wife's name without her agreement or awareness, circumventing the imposed restriction.
Post the fraudulent petition's dismissal in October 2019, Schaub went ahead with an eighth filing two months later. Despite a specific court order barring him until May 2021, he falsely reported his bankruptcy history, omitting the relevant filings. After the February 2020 dismissal of this eighth petition, the Court enforced a five-year ban on any further bankruptcy filings, intended to run until February 2025.
Defiantly, Schaub filed a ninth petition roughly two years post the last dismissal, once more thwarted and this time-barred for a decade, through June 2032. Yet, he lodged a tenth bankruptcy attempt in August 2023, which was promptly dismissed. Now, the actions of Mr. Schaub have landed him the possibility of a maximum of five years in a federal prison.
The investigation that brought Mr. Shaub to the courtroom was the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Dallas Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marty Basu is credited with leading the prosecution. For further inquiries, Press Officer Erin Dooley can be reached at 214-659-8707 or via email at [email protected].
