Landlord sentenced for role in mortgage fraud scheme

Dov Ratchkauskas, a Squirrel Hill landlord and Israeli citizen who tried to flee the U.S. after he admitted to his leadership role in a mortgage fraud scheme, was sentenced Tuesday to 57 months in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer imposed a 51-month term for the mortgage fraud, which he carried out with his partner at Admiral Capital, George Kubini, and another half a year for contempt of court in trying to obtain a passport so he could escape.

Federal agents had arrested him on Mount Royal Road in Squirrel Hill on March 4, 2015, and hauled him away in handcuffs as neighbors watched and at least one recorded the scene on a cell phone.

The week before, Ratchkauskas, 50, admitted that he and Kubini, along with a cadre of crooked associates, ripped off financial institutions for millions in fraudulent loans through a complexweb of false representations.

Kubini has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.

In court Tuesday, as his family and supporters looked on, Ratchkauskas apologized to them and said he had been running an honest real estate business until 2007, when he fell in with the criminal element.

“These people changed my mindset,” he said. “All that mattered was adding more zeroesto my bank account.”

He said he now sees his life differently.

In jail, he said, he prays, exercises and reads daily — especially motivational books by Tony Robbins and Ben Franklin — and is dedicated to helping people when he gets out.

His lawyer, David Berardinelli, said his client is remorseful for what he’s done and already has paid $400,000 in restitution.

“He is good in his heart and went wayward,” said Mr. Berardinelli, who also argued that Kubini was the true architect of the fraud scheme, not Ratchkauskas.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Shaun Sweeney disputed that, saying Ratchkauskas was an equal in the fraud.

“He certainly is not less culpablethan Kubini,” he said.

He said Ratchkauskas also defied Judge Fischer. She had ordered him not to obtain a passport or leave Western Pennsylvania. But he traveled to Florida to get a Florida’s driver's license and then applied for an expedited passport, violating his bond.

“You lied to me,” the judge told him Tuesday.

Still, she said, he has good qualities, treated his employees well and has the willingness to improve himself.

Judge Fischer said she will recommend to the Bureau of Prisons that Ratchkauskas be allowed to serve his time at the prison in Morgantown, W.Va.