James Monahan, 44, the owner of
Panam Management Group Inc., pleaded guilty to mail and wire fraud charges
earlier this year. Monahan duped people into investing money in a dicey
Dominican Republic real estate deal, and then misused the funds.
BY BARBARA ROSS
A former NYPD sergeant was
sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison Friday for duping people into
investing $4.8 million in a dicey real estate deal in the Dominican Republic
and then misusing the funds.
The project was never built and
the investors lost all their money.
James Monahan, 44, the owner of
Panam Management Group Inc., pleaded guilty to mail and wire fraud charges
earlier this year. Starting in 2008, he touted his position in the police
department as proof that he was trustworthy.
Prosecutors said that for a
year, Monahan, of Manhattan, lured investors while his partner, attorney Edward
Adams, put their customers’ money into an escrow account.
Almost immediately, Adams
withdrew the money without telling the investors.
To hide the theft, prosecutors
said, Monahan — who’ll spend 58 months behind bars — forged a letter on a major
bank claiming the funds were safely deposited.