BALTIMORE — A Pikesville man is facing up to 30 years in federal prison for fraudulently getting federal loans on two homes in southeast Baltimore that ended up falling into foreclosure.
Philip Abramowitz, 50, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and must pay $373,684 in restitution, according to a U.S. Attorney's Office press release. He is set to be sentenced Aug. 9 to up to 30 years in jail.
Abramowitz and his brother, Calvin Abramowitz of Lakewood, N.J., were both charged earlier this year.
Abramowitz and others pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the Federal Housing Administration by getting an FHA-insured loan in 2016 and 2017 for two houses in the 100 block of North Potomac Street, near Orleans Street.
He misrepresented himself to get FHA-insured loans for two of his relatives, who claimed they would be living at the Potomac Street homes. (To qualify for an FHA-insured loan, buyers must use the home as their primary residence and disclose any family/business relationships between the seller and buyer, as well as disclose the source of their funding.)
Both properties ultimately fell into foreclosure, after the family members failed to pay down the mortgage. One of the homes, 163 N. Potomac, was rented out for a year before eventually getting foreclosed on. The second home was never used as a primary residence and mortgage payments were never made on it.
