A man who jumped his $1 million bail after being convicted of 13 felonies in a condominium loan scam in San Francisco was arrested Oct. 3 in Watsonville, Calif. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, police arrested Jay Shah, 48, in his Land Rover outside a motel on Highway 1.
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón told the paper that investigators tracked Shah, who was found guilty in a $5.5 million real estate fraud scheme, to San Diego, Los Angeles and Las Vegas before learning he was in Watsonville, where local police took him into custody.
Shah was found guilty Sept. 19 and was convicted of forgery, grand theft, money laundering, burglary and identity theft. According to local news reports, Shah did not attend court as his verdict was being read, and earlier reports have speculated that Shah – who may have been hospitalized – checked himself out of the hospital and fled.
“As soon as we found out that the defendant was on the run, we worked collaboratively with (the San Francisco Police Department) and other state and federal agencies,” The Associated Press quoted Gascón as saying at a press conference Oct. 4.
Shah is now in custody and faces 35 years in prison. His sentencing date will be set Nov. 8.
From 2008 to 2009, Shah and his co-conspirators, including 31-year-old Nepali native Kaushal Niroula, fraudulently transferred three posh condominiums in the Rincon Hill building in San Francisco – valued at $5.5 million to their names, then obtained refinancing loans from an unnamed bank against those properties, which belonged to Stephanie Hwang. The illegal money was deposited into shell accounts, including a Nevada company and a confidential Swiss bank account.
Shah’s role in the scheme was to arrange financing and escrow services in anticipation of the loan.
Niroula, dubbed the “Dark Prince” by local media, is serving a sentence in Riverside County for conspiring to murder a 74-year-old woman, whose home he fraudulently took title to and then attempted to sell.
Niroula has also been charged with stealing $300,000 in jewelry from a 78-year-old woman.
