D.C. Man Sentenced to Six-Plus Years in Straw Buyer Scheme

U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz sentenced Osman Sharrieff Al-Bari of Washington, D.C., to 78 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for mail fraud arising from the fraudulent purchase of 25 properties in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia. According to Rod J. Rosenstein, U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, Al-Bari led a scheme in which he, his sister Jamilah Al-Bari, Terrence White, Timothy Reed and others paid straw purchasers to purchase houses for them. Many of the loan applications for the straw buyers misrepresented their income and assets. Al-Bari, White and Reed also created false invoices to claim that their company, Brotherly Investment Group, performed "renovations" on some of the properties. Using these false invoices, the conspirators were "repaid" at closing for the purported renovations. In total, the conspirators received $3.8 million in fraudulent funds. Many of the purchased properties have been foreclosed upon. Al-Bari is responsible for $2.5 million in losses from the scheme. Jamilah Al-Bari, White and Reed have all pleaded guilty to mail fraud in connection with their participation in this scheme and are scheduled for sentencing in the next two months.