Straw Buyer Lured Into A Wild Ride

After taking a plastic bag with $10,000 in cash from a fraudulent land deal, Alicia Martineau found herself sinking deeper into drugs, maxing out her credit card at the Crystal Mall — and hopping on a plane to Dubai to meet a new fiance.

Martineau, a 2004 Co-op High grad, shared the details of her decline in tearful testimony Thursday on Day 7 of a mortgage fraud trial unfolding in U.S. District Court in Hartford.

She recounted how, at the age of 21, she got sucked into a scheme to defraud lenders and the government with trumped-up mortgages and leave a trail of blight across New Haven and other Connecticut communities. She became one of a series of ​“straw buyers” allegedly duped into purchasing rundown homes at falsely inflated prices in exchange for a cash kickback.

Martineau’s involvement began when she started dating an older, partying salesman. He introduced her to his business partners, whom she grew to call ​“friends.”

“I thought they had my best interests” at heart, Martineau testified.

Martineau, one of 15 alleged co-conspirators in the scam, pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Facing up to five years in prison, she signed a deal agreeing to cooperate with the government in the hopes of a lesser sentence.

The 24-year-old walked into the wood-paneled courtroom at 11:15 a.m. holding a black Coach purse, her hair pulled back in a tight bun. Standing less than five feet tall, she wore a black dress jacket that hung down past her wrists. In a quiet voice, she spoke for over two hours of how she came to fall ​“in the middle of a very large thing.”

“I grew up in New Haven,” she said, running through her bio before 15 jurors, three prosecutors, seven defense lawyers, and five defendants.

She attended Cooperative Arts and Humanities Magnet High School in New Haven, where she ​“did well” in school. Then she took classes at Southern Connecticut State University for a few semesters.

“I didn’t finish,” she said. She started waitressing at Lenny’s seafood restaurant in Branford. At the end of 2007, she met a man by the name of Jo’mell Thomas.

“I met him online,” Martineau explained. ​“He sent me a message through Myspace.”

At the time, Martineau was 21 years old. She was living alone in an apartment in West Haven. Thomas was about five years older.

Thomas used MySpace to recruit straw buyers for the scheme using come-ons like this one (pictured):

“IM ALWAYS LOOKING FOR NEW FRIENDS TO MAKE MONEY WITH AND PARTY… SO IF YOUR LOOKING TO MAKE SOME MONEY HIT ME UP!!!”

Martineau liked to party, too.

“I was a social person,” she said. ​“I partied. I would drink, do some drugs, cocaine, ecstasy, smoked weed. That was what I did.”

Martineau said she and Thomas ​“were talking a little bit through texts,” then met in person for the first time around Christmas of 2007. 

Martineau said at first, Thomas treated her well. ​“We would go out to dinner and stuff like that,” She said they weren’t ​“officially dating,” but ​“we were seeing each other for probably close to a year or so.”

Their relationship shifted to the realm of business.

“After seeing him for a while, I learned that he bought and sold houses,” Martineau said. ​“He asked me if I would like to buy a house.”

Thomas laid out her options as a new homeowner, she testified: ​“He said that, you know, with purchasing houses you can obviously either live in the house or rent the house out.”

Thomas also told her about another option — one that came with a risk. ​“Me and my partners also do this thing with foreclosures where you buy a house and let it go into foreclosure,” he told her, according to her testimony. If her home fell into foreclosure, he told her, ​“we would help you with the bankruptcy and getting it out of your name.”

When they discussed the risk involved, Martineau first thought she would be able to name her price for the sacrifice.

“I said that I wouldn’t be able to do a bankruptcy and ruin my name for less than fifty or sixty thousand,” she said.

According to her testimony, she was never given that power in negotiating her share of the deal.

The Mastermind Emerges

A man named Syed Babar called the shots.

Babar, the 28-year-old alleged mastermind of the scheme, pleaded guilty before this trial began.

She said she first met Babar at Thomas’s East Haven home. Thomas arranged the meeting.

During the the meeting, Babar asked Martineau what she’d do with the money if she could make quick cash from ​“buying” a home. She told him she’d use it to go back to college.

Martineau said she didn’t discuss ​“a particular dollar amount” with Babar. But by the end of the meeting, she was ready to sign up.

Soon after the meeting, Martineau made copies of tax returns, W2 wage statements, identification and a credit report, she testified.

Thomas also introduced her to Kenneth Perkins, a Groton man who was working with Babar as a straw buyer, confidant, and later as an amateur photo-doctorer. Perkins, who has also pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme, is the government’s star witness in this case.

As her first step in the scheme, Martineau drove up to Groton with Thomas to add her name to the bank account of a man named Koa Kent. The bank account was to be used for her assets for buying the house.

Martineau later had to pull out her money and put it in a separate account when Kent got arrested on charges of child molestation, she testified. (He was later sentenced to five years in jail.)

Somewhere along the way, Martineau learned that in order to buy the house, she would not only have to risk bad credit, but also tell a series of lies.

As a waitress at Lenny’s making about $25,000 per year, Martineau didn’t have enough money to apply for a loan to buy a house at the prices Babar was suggesting. So she agreed to lie about where she worked.

“Syed [Babar] told me that I have to say that my employer is Fantastical Catering,” a company that didn’t exist.

Her ​“employment” later switched to another fake company called Home Catering.

“I was told to say that that was my primary means of employment, so that I got paid more than I did,” Martineau said.

She said she started picking up checks from Perkins to put into her bank account. Some were supposed to be proof of payment from the fake catering business; others were to boost up her assets so she could apply for a loan.

“Sign Here”

After a couple of false starts, Martineau closed on a house on Oct. 1, 2009. She drove alone to 419 Whalley Ave. in New Haven, the office building of former state legislator and disbarred lawyer Morris Olmer, as well as attorney David Avigdor, a New Haven rabbi.

At the office, she was greeted by Ken Perkins, she said. ​“He brought me upstairs and I waited in a waiting room-type area.”

In another room, Olmer and Babar were discussing the deal with the seller, New Haven landlord Marshall Asmar. At one point, Asmar left the room, looking ​“agitated,” she said. Then he went back in, and they settled on a deal.

Martineau sat down and ​“bought” 211 Lloyd St. for $160,000. To pay for it, she applied for a loan in the amount of $157,102. To get the loan, she lied and said that she worked at Home Catering, and that she planned to use the home as her primary residence.

By this point, her risk had grown dramatically: Instead of just blowing her credit, she was lying on a federal loan application, a federal crime.

In recounting her role in the scam, Martineau presented herself at times as a vulnerable young woman duped by older men. At other times, she admitted she knew what she was doing was wrong and was out for personal gain.

“Did you know it was wrong to lie on a loan application?” prosecutor Eric Glover asked her.

“Yes,” she replied.

“Why did you do it?” he asked.

“Because I was looking to get money out of it,” she said, matter-of-factly.

However, she said she didn’t really know what she was getting into. At the closing, she didn’t have a lawyer. Olmer sat her down in his office and guided her through the paperwork, she said.

“He more or less just said ​‘Sign here.’”

After she closed on the home, Martineau never got the keys, she testified. She said that at the closing, Olmer discussed whether to rent out the property. Babar suggested ​“They might change it out of my name into someone else’s name.”

“That was the last I heard of the property,” Martineau said.

The home fell into foreclosure. Martineau never got the $50,000 to $60,000 she originally had requested for ruining her credit.

The Money Bag

In return for her efforts, Babar gave Martineau a black bag with cash in it. She said she picked up the cash at an East Haven gas station off of Interstate 95.

The scene piqued the interest of Frank Riccio, Jr., one of five defense attorneys who questioned her Thursday.

“Ten thousand dollars in a black trash bag?” he asked. ​“Was it all in singles?”

No, Martineau replied. The money came in hundreds and twenties.

Was it a tall kitchen trash bag? Riccio asked.

“No, it was a small grocery bag,” she replied.

She said she didn’t keep that money. She handed it over to Kenneth Perkins. The money was supposed to go toward a liquor business she thought she was going to open with him. The liquor store ​“never happened,” and she never saw the money again, she testified. The government has since seized the money, she said.

Credit Card ​“Advice”

Martineau said her total earnings from 211 Lloyd St., before the government stepped in, were about $19,000. In addition to the money bag, Babar told her she could keep $9,000 in her banking account that was given to her for the purchase of the home, she said.

That wasn’t the only deal Babar offered her, Martineau testified.

Under Babar’s ​“advisement,” she started buying gift cards with a credit card, racking up a bill she never intended to pay off, she said. She said she went to the Crystal Mall in Waterford several times with Babar and bought thousands of dollars in gift cards with her credit card.

She would give most of the gift cards to Babar.

“He said that he would give me the money back for them,” Martineau said.

The story revealed a great trust for the man at the center of the financial scams — a trust that would take her halfway around the world.

Next Stop, Dubai

After their trips to the mall, Babar approached Martineau with another offer that surpassed the rest. It involved a free vacation to a far-away place, with more gift cards awaiting at the destination.

The destination: Dubai.

“Babar wanted me to get engaged to one of his family members,” so that that person could immigrate to the USA, Martineau said. Compared to the risk of breaking federal immigration law, the reward was comparatively piddling.

“I was more or less told that I would get a free trip,” Martineau testified.

The Connecticut girl took the offer and hopped on a plane with Babar. When she got there, she met Babar’s nephew, who was ​“the person I was going to be engaged to.”

“I was given a few gift cards for shopping,” Martineau said. She said she never intended to marry the guy. ​“I was told that when he came here, I could break off the engagement.”

Babar went as far as to buy Martineau a ring for the fake engagement. The engagement never went through, she said. The nephew never ended up entering the U.S.

In cross-examination Thursday, Attorney Riccio probed the immense power Babar seemed to have over straw buyers like Martineau.

“What was it with Mr. Babar?” he asked. ​“Whenever he asked you to do something, you did it?”

“Yes,” Martineau replied in a small voice. ​“I thought he was my friend and had my best interests.”

Martineau felt close to Perkins, too. In recorded phone calls between Perkins and Martineau, she says, ​“I miss you” several times, according to Riccio. He asked if she and Perkins were ever in a relationship.

She said they never dated. ​“It was more in a friend way.” Perkins was going through some tough times — his girlfriend was dying of cancer — and they talked a lot, she said. She said she looked forward to going into business with him.

Apparently probing for a motive for her actions, Riccio asked Martineau if drugs drove her bad decisions. The question brought a swell of tears to her face.

Riccio brought up a statement she allegedly gave the government — that she intended to use the proceeds from the house sale to buy more marijuana.

Martineau indicated when she first set out to buy a house, she didn’t need money for drugs, but her drug use escalated as she fell deeper into the various fraud schemes.

“When I first met Jo’mell I was in a much better place than I was as time went on,” Martineau said.

Are you in that place now? Riccio asked. She began to cry.

“I’m in the middle of a very large, very large thing,” Martineau said, her voice faltering. ​“But in terms of using drugs, I don’t use [them] anymore.”

As part of her plea deal, Martineau has to undergo drug testing. She admitted that after her plea, she tested positive once for marijuana, but she said she’s been clean ever since.

“Do you hope to repair your life?” Riccio asked.

“Yes,” she said.

Before facing the next of five defense lawyers, Martineau took a moment to regain her composure.

“Do you need a Kleenex?” asked attorney Donald Cretella, who’s representing Babar’s uncle, Rab Nawaz.

“No. I’m fine,” Martineau replied.

She recounted again how she met Jo’mell, Babar and Perkins.

“Did you like these guys?” Cretella asked.

“I liked them at the time,” she said. ​“I currently am kind of angry at the situation that I’m in.”

Cretella asked her if she knew that the trio ​“wanted her credit.”

“I thought they had my best interest,” she replied.

“Looking back, can you see that they didn’t have your best interests? … Looking back, can you see that they tried to manipulate you?”

“Yes,” Martineau replied. ​“I’m hurt.”

Martineau said her relationship with Babar remained intact up until May 2010, when government investigators contacted her and she started cooperating. She said she had just let Babar complete her 2009 taxes, which were due on April 15.

“He filed them late,” she said.

Previous coverage of this case:

• After Big Fish Plead, Smaller Fry Point Fingers
• Slum-Photo Doctor Makes A Call
• What Happened At Goodfellas Didn’t Stay At Goodfellas
• Fraud Trial Opens With Oz-Like Yarn
• ​“Partying” MySpacer Lined Up Scam Homebuyers
• ​“Straw Buyer” Pleads Guilty
• Neighbors, Taxpayers Left With The Tab
• FBI Arrests Police Commissioner, Slumlord, Rabbi
• One Last Gambit Falls Short
• Was He In ​“Custody”?
• Is Slum Landlord Helping The FBI?
• Feds Snag Poverty Landlord
• Police Commissioner Pleads