WOBURN – The former co-owner of a Malden real estate company pleaded guilty in Middlesex Superior Court last week to four counts each of Forgery, Larceny over $250, and uttering a false writing.
Kofi Asare, 43, from Worcester, has been sentenced to jail in connection with a scheme to steal real estate from property owners and then sell it for profit, according to Attorney General Maura Healey’s office.
“This defendant perpetrated a real estate scheme in which he stole from homeowners and falsified documents in order to make a profit for himself,” AG Healey said. “We remain dedicated to protecting people with distressed properties from these predatory and deceptive practices.”
Asare was co-owner of Ashmex, Inc. The Attorney General’s Protection Division began an investigation after receiving a referral from the AG’s Neighborhood Renewal Division. The investigation revealed that starting around 2015, Asare began stealing real estate from property owners and would sell those properties for profit.
The scheme involved Asare creating fake deeds and listing the original homeowner’s name and forge their signature to transfer the property to himself of Ashmex. Once the properties were acquired, Asare would try selling them to third-party buyers and keeping all profits for himself or Ashmex.
Asare also posed as a real estate agent in order to obtain information on the homeowners’ mortgages. He used the information to facilitate the sale of the properties.
Asare was sentenced to two years in the House of Correction, with six months to serve, and the balance suspended for a probationary period of two years, with the conditions that he pay restitution in the amount of $549,480, dissolve all entities he owns that engage in the acquisition and sale of real estate, and be prohibited from practicing real estate and/or being employed by any entity that buys, sells or markets real estate.
