Calif. man netted $10 million in scam by selling properties he didn’t own

A 26-year-old Delano man was sentenced to nearly eight years in federal prison on Monday for his part in running a $10 million real estate scam that used fake real estate agents and forged documents to sell properties that were never actually for sale. 

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Gilberto Barron was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, as well as aggravated identity theft, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California announced on Monday. Barron pleaded guilty on June 29.

Barron carried out the scheme with federal inmate Seth Depiano, 45, and others, including Las Vegas resident Zahria Barber, 29, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said Barron and his co-conspirators worked with Depiano between 2021 and 2022 to create fake identities for purported real estate agents and shell companies designed to resemble legitimate real estate businesses. The group advertised properties that were not actually for sale, including homes whose owners had died, and offered them to prospective buyers in California’s Central Valley and in other places at discounted prices.

According to the news release, Barron and his co-conspirators met with buyers under false identities and purported to close the sales using fabricated deeds and title reports, along with other real estate documents. 

The group then funneled the buyers’ money through Las Vegas casinos with Barber’s help, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said she received payments that went toward living expenses and student loans in return.

They deposited large sums into gaming machines before quickly cashing out with little or no gambling activity in an effort to disguise the source of the funds. Some of the money was later used to buy properties for themselves.

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The IRS Criminal Investigation division and the Bakersfield Police Department investigated the case with assistance from the FBI and the Nevada Attorney General’s Office. 

“Mr. Barron didn’t just steal money,” David Lowe, the acting special agent in charge from the IRS Criminal Investigation’s San Francisco field office, said in a statement. “He took advantage of people’s trust by subverting an American financial system for his own gain.”

Depiano was already serving a 12-year sentence for a separate multimillion-dollar fraud case and was sentenced in January to nine additional years. Barber was sentenced in June to one year in prison for helping launder the money.