New Names on Fannie Mae’s Blacklist

Fannie Mae blacklisted eight real estate players whose outstanding loan balance with the agency was about $700 million as of March 2024, according to internal documents recently obtained by The Real Deal.

While some of those blacklisted have already pleaded guilty for their role in mortgage fraud schemes, the documents — multiple emails — reveal several new names. And though the exact relationships among the growing cast of players can be difficult to unwind, many of them routinely do business with each other, meaning the list could point to as-yet-unknown deals or strategies, as well as other lenders or properties.

In total, Fannie had 46 loans out to these eight borrowers.

Boruch “Barry” Drillman, Moshe “Mark” Silber and Fred Schulman were on the list; they have pleaded guilty and await sentencing. Their typical schemes involved flipping properties among themselves to obtain larger loans than they otherwise would have received.

As of March 2024, Fannie’s largest exposure was to Drillman, with eight active loans totaling $250 million in unpaid principal balance, according to one of the emails.

Fannie Mae was well aware of its widening exposure to suspect loans in March 2024, the internal documents show. This was months before Fannie listed financial losses from mortgage fraud as its top risk factor in its third-quarter earnings filing, disclosing that it was closely monitoring its exposure.

Last month, Fanne Mae set aside $752 million to cover potential losses, but it’s possible the fraud schemes could total much more.

New names

The other names on Fannie’s so-called blacklist are Boruch Gottesman, Chaim Puretz, Oron Zarum, Israel Katz and David Helfgott.

In one example of the interconnectedness among the people on the blacklist, Zarum and Puretz have been tied to four properties in Indianapolis at which prosecutors alleged millions of dollars of rent were misused.

In another, Gottesman signed a guarantee on a loan for the Williamsburg of Cincinnati rental complex owned by Drillman and Silber.

Chaim Puretz is also connected to a familiar name: He is the brother of Aron Puretz of Apex Equity Group. Aron Puretz has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution and was sentenced to five years in prison. Fannie had already repurchased eight loans from Chaim Puretz in March 2024, according to the email.

Big exposure

Fannie Mae disclosed it suffered financial losses from mortgage fraud for the first time late last year.

In the first quarter of 2025, Fannie Mae said it reserved hundreds of millions of dollars for credit losses in part because of fraud or suspected fraud. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are also seeking to impose tougher rules on lenders and brokers after some of these fraud schemes came to light.

The internal email obtained by TRD shows when the agency was aware of the growing problem and its potential exposure to these borrowers. The sender warned about a common scheme, warning that the eight borrowers may have flipped properties among themselves, hid buildings’ true ownership or inflated financials.

The email noted that this flipping strategy was becoming more difficult by early 2024, and that defaults could start occurring on multiple properties.

Outside the agency, signs of the problem began to emerge in December 2023 when Drillman pleaded guilty to one count conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution. The plea was for his role in a $165 million fraud scheme involving the Williamsburg of Cincinnati rental apartments and an office complex in Troy, Michigan.

After Drillman, Fannie’s next largest exposure was to Fred Schulman. The agency had nine loans out to Schulman totaling $116 million in unpaid principal balance. Schulman, a co-conspirator of Drillman’s, also awaits sentencing in the Williamsburg of Cincinnati mortgage fraud case.

Fannie has flagged the suspect borrowers, recording their employee identification numbers and social security numbers. If a lender tries to initiate a loan in which a listed party is involved, it gets flagged, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Fannie did not return a request for comment. None of the sponsors on the blacklist returned a request for comment or could not be reached for comment.