A Skokie man with a Lincolnwood business has been sentenced to 11 years in years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois announced, for his role in a plot to sell fraudulent mortgages totaling millions of dollars.
Albert Rossini, 73, the owner of Lincolnwood’s Devon Street Investments, was sentenced Oct. 12 following his 2018 conviction of several counts of mail fraud and wire fraud, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said he collaborated with Babajan Khoshabe of Chicago and his son Anthony Khoshabe of Skokie to entice more than 12 individuals into buying supposed mortgage notes in or near foreclosure, prosecutors said.
Rossini and the Khoshabes promised investors they would receive titles to the properties once the foreclosure process concluded, but the three never actually owned the notes, according to the government.
The government said the three took more than $7 million in funds and then made payments to the investors in a Ponzi scheme.
Rossini took more than $2.5 million, according to the government.
Rossini could not be reached for comment. A U.S. Attorney spokesman wrote in an e-mail that Rossini was not represented by an attorney following the trial.
The Khoshabes were convicted in 2019 by a jury and are awaiting sentencing.
Also convicted was Chicago attorney Thomas Murphy, who purported to validate the mortgage notes via a fraudulent “guaranty agreement” that he readied for Rossini who then passed them along to the people who bought the phony notes, according to the government.
Murphy pleaded guilty and is currently awaiting sentencing.
