Westchester businessman Selim “Sam” Zherka will forfeit more than $5 million to federal authorities and faces a maximum five-year prison term for his admitted role in a bank loan fraud scheme involving real estate deals in Tennessee.
Zherka pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring to make false statements to a bank, U.S Attorney Preet Bharara announced after the 47-year-old Somers resident”™s appearance in U.S. District Court in White Plains. U.S. District Judge Cathy Siebel scheduled his sentencing for Dec. 22.
Zherka is publisher of The Westchester Guardian, a weekly newspaper based in New Rochelle that gained notoriety in the county under his ownership for its editorial attacks on and lawsuits against elected officials. Zerka’s investments in real estate, though, sparked a federal investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the special inspector general for the Treasury Department”™s Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Starting in December 2005, federal prosecutors charged, Zherka and four business partners conspired to obtain $63.5 million in loans from Sovereign Bank ”“ now Santander Bank – to purchase or refinance apartment-building complexes in Tennessee. Prosecutors said Zherka lied about the purchase price of the property being acquired and the amount of the down payment he was making toward the purchase.
Bharara said Zherka also admitted guilt to charges he engaged in a 5-year-long tax fraud scheme related to the Tennessee apartment properties and the real estate holding companies in which he was a partner. As part of his plea agreement, he agreed to to forfeit $5.23 million for filing materially false returns, Bharara said.
Zherka”™s partners have entered guilty pleas for their roles in the bank loan conspiracy and are awaiting sentencing.
Since his arraignment on the federal charges last September, Zherka has been jailed without bail by federal judges who said the businessman, with strong family ties in Albania, might flee the country if released, adding he had repeatedly shown contempt for, and attempted to obstruct, the legal system.
Its a little bit strange for us from Albania to understand how can a person get $63.5 mil from the banks and make a loan scheme and trick the system for many years.
Perhaps such real estate markets like in our country are far better. You either have money or property for collateral and buy real estate or just don’t go for it.