BOSTON — A Texas man pleaded guilty Nov. 3 in federal court in Boston to his role in a scheme that impersonated property owners, sold their land to unsuspecting buyers and laundered the proceeds, the U.S. attorney's office in Massachusetts said Wednesday. Prosecutors said the scheme involved more than $1.5 million in fraudulent property sales.

Moshe Levi, 61, of Carrollton, Texas, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. U.S. District Judge Myong J. Joun scheduled sentencing for Feb. 11, 2027. Each charge carries up to 20 years in prison.

Levi was charged in July along with two co-defendants. According to court filings, the group targeted vacant properties with no mortgages or liens in Massachusetts, Georgia, Indiana and Tennessee whose owners lived out of state.

Prosecutors said Levi and the others set up email and internet phone accounts and obtained fake identification, including driver's licenses and passports, in the owners' names. Posing as the owners, they persuaded real estate agents to list and negotiate the sales and to deed the properties to buyers who paid for them, according to the filings.

The proceeds were then moved by check and wire transfer through personal and corporate bank accounts the group and others controlled, in an effort to hide where the money came from and who owned it, prosecutors said. Since about June 2023, Levi and others shared or tried to share in about $1 million in illegal proceeds, according to court documents.

The charges against Levi's two co-defendants, who are not named in the release, are allegations, and they are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.

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