Portland man sentenced to prison in bank fraud scheme

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – A Portland man was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in prison for a bank fraud scheme that temporarily garnered him more than $300,000.

According to court documents, in Feb. 2017, Alireza Zamanizadeh, aka Ali Zamani, 63 filed a quitclaim deed in Deschutes County, transferring a residential property in Bend to his business for $1 without the property owner’s consent. U.S. District Attorney’s Office of Oregon explained a quitclaim deed as a “document used to quickly transfer the ownership of real property from one party to another.”

With the property now in Zamanizadeh’s control, he used it as collateral for a loan worth $316,092 from a mortgage lender, forging the property owner’s signature on a statement to verify the property transfer.

Zamanizadeh’s loan was approved and transferred into his bank account, before he defaulted on the loan. This led to the true property owner having to purchase their property out of foreclosure for $400,000.

After investigation, Zamanizadeh was charged in June 2021 with bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. In September, he pled guilty to bank fraud.

Along with the sentencing of 18 months in prison, Zamanizadeh will have five years of supervised release. The court also ordered Zamanizadeh to pay $400,000 in restitution to the owner of the property.