Former Quincy Man Sentenced for $1.9 Million Real Estate Fraud Scheme

BOSTON – A former Quincy man, who had been a fugitive for more than 20 years prior to his arrest in April 2017, was sentenced today in federal court in Boston in connection with a $1.9 million real estate investment fraud scheme in Quincy.

Scott J. Wolas, 69, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to 81 months in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $1,949,813 in restitution to the victims of his fraud scheme. Judge Saylor also ordered Wolas to pay restitution of $69,768 to Social Security and Medicare and $318,266 to the IRS. In June 2018, Wolas pleaded guilty to seven counts of wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, misuse of a Social Security number and tax evasion.

From at least 2009 through 2016, Wolas, using the name Eugene Grathwohl, operated a real estate business known as Increasing Fortune Inc. and worked as a licensed real estate agent for Century 21 in Quincy. From 2014 through 2016, he solicited investments for the development of the Beachcomber Bar property on Quincy Shore Drive and for the construction of a single-family home on the adjacent property. He collected more than $1.9 million from at least 24 investors and promised each of them a significant return on their investments. He further promised to pay out at least 125% of the profits related to the single-family home construction. However, Wolas used the money mostly for personal expenses unrelated to development of the real estate projects.

Wolas was scheduled to close on the Beachcomber property on Sept. 15, 2016. A week before, however, he left Quincy and ceased all contact with his then-girlfriend, his co-workers, and his investors. Law enforcement then discovered that Grathwohl was actually Wolas, a former lawyer who had been a fugitive since 1997 after being charged with fraud and grand larceny in New York. The real Eugene Grathwohl resided in Florida and was known to Wolas.

Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/former-quincy-man-sentenced-19-million-real-estate-fraud-scheme