ALBANY, N.Y. -- "They were pedaling the American dream to many of these people," said Albany County DA David Soares.
Friday, he announced a 59-count indictment against Aaron Dare and girlfriend Ana Paula Monteiro for money laundering, grand larceny, and falsifying business records, among other charges. Dare is the former head of Albany's now-defunct Urban League.
"They would use appraisers to appraise property like this that may be worth $60,000 and inflate the appraisals to say $125,000. They would falsify business records," Soares said.
After pleading guilty to felony fraud charges in federal court and after several investigations concluded Aaron Dare defrauded a number of Albany residents out of money for improper housing deals, Dare and his girlfriend have been indicted again - this time on 59 counts. And the fallout of those alleged misdeeds could leave some without a house to live in. Our Steve Ference reports.
According to Soares, the schemes allowed the alleged co-conspirators to make money by skimming off of the inflated mortgages.
"In one instance, we had a young lady, 29 years old with a 1-year-old and a 9-year-old who bought a house because there was no money down. She had to read the newspaper to find out she wasn't even the owner of the building," said Soares.
Officials said Dare and Monteiro could face up to 25 years for $1.6 million worth of scams they said included 25 properties and 27 mortgages - deals they said happened after Dare was indicted on federal charges.
"We are looking at all depository and non-depository institutions very carefully to see if there's a need for regulatory as well as legislative changes with respect to their oversight," said New York Superintendent of Banks Richard Neiman.
He said tighter banking regulations are needed to catch such acts that can cause serious damage. One vacant property with broken windows was apparently mined for its copper pipes and now adds to area blight.
And while prosecutors said this is a serious problem for dozens of families who will now have to find a new place to live, they also said it's now a problem for taxpayers who had nothing to do with any of this. That's because according to them, it's going to take plenty of resources to clean up the mess left behind by having all those falsified business records and fake titles on file.
But Dare's attorney tells us, "We're going to be defending him. It's an awful lot of charges and an awful lot of publicity. Most charges are meritless."
Dare and Monteiro are currently in jail on $100,00 bail.