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1031 Owner Gets 100 Years in Fraud Case

RICHMOND, VA-Edward Okun was found guilty of 23 charges stemming from 'a scheme to defraud and obtain approximately $126 million in client funds held by' the 1031, the court says.

By Michelle Napoli | Updated on August 06, 2009

RICHMOND, VA-Edward H. Okun, the one-time owner of a 1031 exchange qualified intermediary business, was sentenced to 100 years in prison on Tuesday. The sentencing, by US District Judge Robert E. Payne in Richmond, VA, followed Okun’s conviction in March, when a jury found him guilty of 23 federal charges stemming from what the government has termed “a scheme to defraud and obtain approximately $126 million in client funds held by” the 1031 Tax Group LLP. Okun’s 1031TG was an umbrella company which owned six qualified intermediary companies purchased by Okun between 2005 and 2007.

“Edward Okun’s investors trusted that he would keep their funds safe,” assistant attorney general Lanny A. Breuer says in an announcement from the Department of Justice. “But evidence introduced at trial showed that Mr. Okun instead used those investor dollars to finance a lavish lifestyle and to grow his own business holdings. Today’s sentencing provides a measure of justice for those who lost so much to Okun’s deceit.”

“Because of Edward Okun’s crimes, many victims in this case experienced near financial collapse and personal pain,” US attorney Dana J. Boente adds in the DOJ announcement.

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