A New York man named Andrew Laub has been charged with wire fraud in connection with an alleged real estate fraud scheme. The charge was announced Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
The complaint says the alleged scheme ran from at least 2020 through December 2025. Prosecutors allege Laub solicited friends and longtime acquaintances for property purchases, renovations and resales, including in Westchester and the Bronx, and sent them emails and agreements that falsely suggested investments had been made. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the alleged losses exceeded $5 million; it also alleges Laub used new investors’ money to pay earlier investors, and spent some funds on personal expenses and gambling.
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald tied the case to the office's broader mission in a statement shared on social media. “This prosecution once again demonstrates our Office's commitment to identify and prosecute fraud,” McDonald said, according to a post from US Attorney SDNY
McDonald has worked in both federal prosecution and financial-market enforcement. Before taking the top job at the Manhattan-based office in July 2026, he served as an assistant U.S. attorney there through 2017, then led enforcement at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission from 2017 to 2020. The office’s announcement of his appointment says his earlier prosecutions included white-collar and organized-crime cases.
on X. The post, from the account's handle sdnynews, also stated that Laub's alleged scheme demonstrates how easily trust can be manipulated for financial gain, and that the office will continue to pursue those who exploit trust to defraud others.
What We Don't Yet Know
Because the case information available so far comes only from a search snippet, several basic facts remain unconfirmed, including whether Laub has entered a plea and the case's current procedural status. No response from Laub or an attorney representing him has been made public.
The dates of the alleged conduct and the identities of any victims have also not been disclosed in the material reviewed. Prosecutors have not stated how the alleged real estate investments were marketed or what representations were allegedly made to induce victims to participate.
A Pattern of Real Estate Fraud Cases in New York
Laub's case lands amid a string of real estate and investment fraud prosecutions out of the Southern District of New York in recent years. In August, the same office announced that Joshua Schuster was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in a scheme to defraud investors in large real estate development projects located in New York City, per the Department of Justice's announcement.
A recent SDNY real-estate fraud case has already reached a very different stage: Joshua Schuster pleaded guilty before receiving his four-year sentence in August 2026. Prosecutors said he diverted more than $13 million from investors, including to cover personal expenses and gambling losses and to repay earlier investors. The Schuster case announcement describes a conviction and sentence; Laub, by contrast, has been charged, and the allegations against him have not been proven.
Separately, Law360 reported that a recently resigned Brooklyn state judge and a real estate investor were arrested on federal charges alleging they scammed investors out of $5 million in connection with a purported New Jersey commercial sale. That case, like Laub's, centers on allegations that victims were misled about the nature of a real estate deal before money changed hands.
Other SDNY cases referenced in the office's prior announcements describe a range of alleged real estate schemes, including one from August 2025 in which two defendants were accused of fleecing more than a hundred victims out of millions of dollars, and a 2017 case in which, as alleged, one victim was wrongfully evicted from their own home. In a separate matter announced by the Department of Justice's Office of Public Affairs, four real estate investors were sentenced in April 2025 for an extensive, multi-year conspiracy to fraudulently obtain multimillion-dollar loans on commercial and multifamily properties.
No additional details about Laub's case, including scheduling for future court proceedings, were available at the time of this report.
