A Maryland real estate investor was sentenced to 40 months in prison for stealing a residential property in northwest Washington, D.C. Franklin Olaitan, 51, of Beltsville, Md., was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release, to not buy or lease any properties during the period of supervised release, to pay at least $580,663.73 in restitution and a $111,159.63 criminal forfeiture money judgment and pay a $100 assessment.
Olaitan pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols on Aug. 15, 2023, to one count of wire fraud. As part of the plea, Olaitan admitted he caused the filing of a false deed transferring the property, which he immediately resold to a third-party, pocketing the sale proceeds. As a result of the fraudulent scheme, Olaitan caused over $600,000 in losses to the various victims.
According to the government’s evidence, between Sept. 23, 2016, through March 22, 2017, Olaitan stole a real property on First Street, NW, using a fake deed and other falsified documents in order to rapidly sell the property, pocketing the sale proceeds, and defrauding the true owner of the property, settlement company, mortgage lenders, title company, and the buyer. Olaitan impersonated the victim owner through false documents which enabled him to get away with his theft for a significant time during which the buyer of the property spent over $600,000 renovating the property.
Olaitan was arrested Dec. 15, 2021, in D.C.
The FBI’s Washington Field Office conducted the investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Diane Lucas and Christopher Howland prosecuted the case with valuable assistance from Paralegal Specialists Lisa Abbe and Liliana Villamizar, Victim-Witness Service Coordinator Tonya Jones, Supervisory Litigation Technology Specialist Leif Hickling, Litigation Technology Specialist Jeanie Latimore-Brown, and former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Derrick Williams and Veronica Sanchez.