QUINCY, MA — Nearly a million dollars was recovered from forfeited assets of a Quincy real estate agent who was actually a fugitive from New York living in Quincy under a fake name, the United States Attorney’s Office said Thursday.
$884,755 was recovered from the forfeited assets of Scott J. Wolas to be returned and distributed to the victims of a real estate investment scam he ran, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
72-year-old Wolas was known to investors as Eugene Grathwohl, was arrested April 7, 2017, in Delray Beach, Florida after police said he raised $1.9 million from more than 24 investors as part of a bid to buy the Beachcomber across from Wollaston Beach.
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Wolas was told to have promised to pay out investors at least 125% of the profits related to the single-family home construction, but when the closing day came on Sept. 15, 2016, Wolas was nowhere to be found after leaving town a week earlier.
Prior to his Florida arrest, Wolas used his real name as a lawyer in New York and was investigated for his connection in a $20 million fraud scheme. He went “missing” in 1997 and remained a fugitive for about 20 years.
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Wolas was disbarred in 1999 and his firm reportedly settled a lawsuit with 20 investors for $6 million.
In January 2019, Wolas was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to 81 months…
