Description: Boston, Massachusetts criminal defense lawyer represented defendant charged with defraud an elderly relative of her interest in a three-family home and a separate scheme to defraud the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance.

Between August and September 2017, Giorgio “George” Fiorenza, 51, defrauded an elderly relative into signing a deed conveying her interest in a property she owned with Fiorenza’s spouse and forged the victim’s name on another document necessary to convey title to the property, both of which were recorded in the Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Fiorenza then took out a $750,000 loan in his spouse’s name and secured by the property, and subsequently caused the lender to foreclose on the property. As a result of Fiorenza’s conduct, the victim was forced to move from the only home she had ever known, where she had lived for more than seven decades and where her family had had roots for generations.

Between April and June 2020, Fiorenza filed claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) in the names of third parties and fraudulently diverted some of the funds for his own use. PUA was a temporary federal unemployment insurance program created when Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) in March 2020 in response to the global coronavirus pandemic. The PUA program, which in Massachusetts was administered by the Department of Unemployment Assistance, provided unemployment insurance benefits for individuals who were not eligible for other types of unemployment benefits. Among other things, Fiorenza filed a PUA claim using a victim’s identity, directed the proceeds of the claim to an account in his spouse’s name, and did not disclose to the victim or her husband that she had qualified for assistance.

On Dec. 14, 2021, Fiorenza pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; and Jonathan Mellone, Special Agent in Charge of Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Labor Racketeering & Fraud Investigations, made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen A. Kearney of Rollins’ Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.

Outcome: 05/18/2022 91 District Judge Leo T. Sorokin: ORDER entered. JUDGMENT as to Giorgio Fiorenza (1), Count(s) 1s-2s,3s. 36 Months in custody ( 12 months of Counts 1s &2s, to run concurrently; and 24 months of Count 3s, to run consecutively to Counts 1s & 2s), 3 years of supervised release. (3 years on Counts 1s & 2s, and 1 year on Count 3s; said terms to run concurrently), $300 Special Assessment, Restitution in the amount of $20,508. (Belmont, Kellyann) (Entered: 05/18/2022)

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