A Carrollton man has pleaded guilty in a scheme involving more than $1.5 million in fraudulent property sales across four states, giving North Texas a direct connection to a type of real estate fraud that title industry researchers say has become more common.
Moshe Levi entered his plea Tuesday in federal court in Boston to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday, November 4.
Authorities say the scheme involved impersonating property owners and selling land without their permission. The Justice Department identified properties in Massachusetts, Georgia, Indiana, and Tennessee.
How The Fraud Scheme Worked
According to court filings summarized by prosecutors, Levi and alleged accomplices identified vacant properties without liens whose owners lived out of state. They obtained fake driver’s licenses and passports and created email and internet-based telephone accounts under the owners’ names.
Those identities helped them persuade real estate professionals to list properties, negotiate sales, and transfer deeds to unsuspecting buyers, prosecutors said. Participants also used checks, wire transfers, and personal and corporate bank accounts to conceal proceeds from the transactions.
Prosecutors put the fraudulent property sales at more than $1.5 million. They separately described approximately $1 million in proceeds that Levi and others shared or attempted to share beginning around June 2023. Those figures measure different parts of the alleged scheme, not two separate sums to combine.
Similar Disputes Have Reached Dallas
The risk is familiar to some Dallas homeowners.
In November 2025, The Dallas Express covered the Mendoza family’s dispute over title to their Southeast Dallas home. The family alleged that fraudulent deed transfers threatened the home they had occupied for decades.
A separate Dallas County criminal prosecution ended with a 35-year prison sentence for Whitney Foster in a first-degree theft case involving deed fraud. Dallas County prosecutors listed the conviction in their 2024 annual report.
Title Companies Report More Attempts
An American Land Title Association survey of 245 title insurance professionals across 40 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands found that 59% of respondents’ firms encountered at least one seller-impersonation fraud attempt during 2025. That compares with 28% in the association’s 2024 survey. The figures measure surveyed firms’ experiences, not the percentage of all property sales involving fraud.
Vacant land, absentee owners, and properties without mortgages rank among common targets, according to the association. Warning signs include sellers who avoid direct contact or insist on using their own remote notaries.
The Texas Department of Insurance advises buyers to visit properties, use trusted notaries, and consider title insurance, which can protect against certain ownership defects arising from fraud or forged documents. Those steps reduce risk but cannot guarantee that fraud will not occur.
Sentencing Set For February
U.S. District Judge Myong J. Joun scheduled Levi’s sentencing for February 11, 2027. Prosecutors originally charged him alongside two other men in July.
Levi’s plea does not establish the guilt of the remaining defendants, who retain the presumption of innocence.
Provided by Dallas Express
