A Branford mother, who was the driving force behind a movement to restore the Branford High School band and orchestra, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to one year and one day in prison for committing bank fraud as part of a mortgage refinancing scheme that she ran out of her home.
Jacqueline Polverari, who four years ago launched a campaign to change the high school musical program, was sentenced to prison Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven. The judge also sentenced Polverari to three years of supervised release for arranging a series of fraudulent mortgage loan refinancing transactions that led to $1.8 million in losses.
Mrs. Polverari became involved in issues centering on the high school’s band and orchestra in 2010, at a time when two of her three children were in the band or orchestra and one was about to enter high school. She galvanized groups of parents and took action on the state level against a school band director who was removed from his post and later reinstated. Her involvement ultimately changed the music program. (Click here and here to read about that.)
A Fraud Scheme Devised to “Prop Up” Company
According to her sentencing memorandum, sometime between the 2008 and 2009 period, Polverari created her own firm, which she moved into her home and where she performed title searches, notary work and real estate closing documents for attorneys. From time to time she also served as a paralegal.
“The criminal conduct at issue here appears to have arisen during this transitional period as she left the employ of others and began to work for herself,” the sentencing report states.
According to a prepared statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office, after Jacqueline Polverari “arranged six closings for residential real estate refinancing transactions during this period of time, she kept the loan proceeds instead of disbursing the proceeds to pay off the pre-existing mortgage loans on the properties.”
Two of these fraudulent refinancing transactions centered on her Branford house, one in the amount of $405,000 and the other in the amount of $403,000. The other four closings concerned loans on other people’s residences, which varied in amounts from approximately $231,000 to $302,000. Lenders lost more than $1.8 million as a result of this scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
Polverari entered a guilty plea to a two-count information to bank fraud on December 20, 2012, the record says. It is not clear why her sentencing took two years from the date of the plea but during this time she switched lawyers.
According to the sentencing memo, which was presented to the court, Polverari “forged documents to secure mortgage funds from banks, and did not use the proceeds to retire debt, either to her own property or as to the property of others. The total foreseeable loss amount for the six transactions is $1,844,388.97.” Judge Arterton ordered Polverari to pay restitution in the amount of $1,875,563.84 but it is not clear how or when that will happen.
The sentencing memo says the reason Polverari needed to devise the scheme and divert the funds was “to prop up her ongoing business.”
Norman A. Pattis, Polverari’s current attorney, asked the judge not to sentence her to prison. “This will best permit her to make the restitution payments she will be required to make, and to continue to address the sources of her anxiety and depression. The sentence would be just as it would reflect the extent of her candid acceptance of her own guilt and her efforts to expiate that guilt by way of cooperation.”
Pattis observed that as one of the government’s motions shows, “she has taken extraordinary steps to assist the Government.”
The judge agreed to give Polverari a relatively short prison term. However, the judge stopped short of no prison at all.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Henry K. Kopel.
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If you steal enough money, you can buy yourself out of almost everything, it appears