Prosecutors say friends and family funded deals that never existed, and a recorded phone call helped unravel the alleged Ponzi-like scheme
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have charged a Westchester County man with wire fraud. They allege he spent nearly six years persuading friends and longtime acquaintances to fund real estate investment deals on properties he never owned, then used their money to repay earlier investors, cover personal expenses and gamble.
Andrew Laub, 59, of Goldens Bridge, New York, was arrested this week and appeared before Chief US Magistrate Judge Judith C. McCarthy in White Plains federal court, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY).
A sworn complaint by Daniel J. Gabel, a postal inspector with the US Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), puts the losses of three victims alone at $5,758,630.
Laub faces one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. The charge is an accusation, and he is presumed innocent.
“Rather than invest their money as promised, Laub allegedly used it to pay off other investors, fund personal expenses, and gamble,” US Attorney Jamie McDonald said.
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How the alleged real estate investment scheme unfolded
According to the complaint, Laub began presenting himself around 2020 as a developer formerly tied to a firm that managed more than $750 million in assets.
His first known target, a Westchester resident, lent him about $250,000 that year on a promise of roughly 45% annual interest, paid monthly. Those monthly payments drew in the victim’s relatives, who lent millions more for purported projects in Virginia, Texas and Florida.
In May 2025, Laub allegedly emailed a Connecticut acquaintance of 12 years about a Bronx flip. He promised a $55,000 profit within about 45 days, and the investor wired $180,000.
Property records show Laub never held an interest in the home, which last sold to an unrelated buyer in 2006.
Two months later, Laub pitched a childhood friend in Florida on a Bedford, New York, house he said he was buying for $1.1 million.
“Each $100k invested will bring back $150k,” his email read. The friend wired about $325,000. The owner told investigators that Laub toured the home several times but never made an offer.
The scheme came apart on Jan. 5. The first victim recorded a phone call in which Laub allegedly admitted he had not invested the money and had fabricated emails from family members confirming the deals.
Read more: $10M real estate fraud scheme nets California man nearly 8 years
Why trusted relationships are a blind spot for brokers
New York posted the highest mortgage fraud risk score in the nation in the fourth quarter of 2025, at 260.12 on Cotality’s index, nearly double the national figure of 133.
Matt Seguin of Cotality has argued that familiarity cuts risk. He told Mortgage Professional America that when a broker has known a borrower for years, “the fraud is less likely in that scenario.”
The Laub case shows the reverse. Affinity fraud depends on exactly that kind of trust.
Alan Tiongson of Constructive Capital has urged brokers to dig into property history and chain of title before accepting an investor’s account of how a deal came together.
“It’s just playing detective, asking the right questions,” he said. Here, a basic title search would have shown that the Bronx deal could not have existed.
“If a property was just purchased five months ago, and then they're coming to us for a refinance, and the property value has gone up by $60,000, I'm looking for photos of that property when you first acquired it. Did you make improvements on this property that warrant this? Who was the appraisal done by?”
The charges also echo the case of a former Brooklyn judge and a developer charged in May over an alleged $5 million escrow scheme.
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