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A Salem man was convicted last week in a decade-long mortgage fraud scheme that saw lenders lose nearly $4 billion.

George Kritopoulos, 50, of Salem, was convicted on May 27 by a federal jury in Boston of one count of conspiracy, two counts of wire fraud, six counts of bank fraud, one count of aiding the preparation of a false income tax return and one count of obstruction of justice, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.

The 10-year mortgage fraud scheme involved at least two dozen fraudulent loan transactions totaling $6.5 million and resulting in more than $3.8 million in losses to lenders, the statement said. Kritopoulos had been charged in the case in September 2018 along with co-defendants Joseph Bates III and David Plunkett.

Bates had pleaded in October 2018 to one count of conspiracy, three counts of wire fraud affecting a financial institution and two counts of bank fraud. Plunkett had pleaded guilty in February 2019 to one count of bank fraud and one count of aiding in the submission of false tax returns.

According to the U.S. attorney’s statement, Kritopoulos, Bates and others engaged in a scheme between 2006 and 2015 to defraud banks and other financial institutions by causing false information to be submitted to those institutions on behalf of borrowers.

The properties, located primarily in Salem, were usually multi-family buildings with two-to-four units which were then converted into condominiums, the statement said. Prosecutors said Kritopoulos recruited borrowers to purchase the individual condominium units and finance them by mortgage loans obtained by fraud.

The false information submitted to lenders included employment, income, assets and intent to occupy the property. According to the statement, borrowers said they were employed by entities that were really shell companies used in the scheme. The borrowers received little or no income from the entities, the statement said. Lenders were also falsely told that borrowers intended to live in the properties that they were purchasing, the statement said.

Kritopoulos brought the recruited borrowers to Plunkett, who then prepared tax returns that contained false and inflated income, the statement said. Some of those tax returns were submitted to lenders as part of the loan applications.

Because the borrowers did not have the financial ability to repay the loans, they defaulted on their loan payments in all but two instances among 21 properties, the statement said, resulting in foreclosures and losses to the lenders of more than $3.8 million.

Prosecutors also said Kritopoulos sought to obstruct the federal criminal investigation into the mortgage fraud scheme by encouraging Bates and Plunkett to make false statements and create false documents he hoped would make the companies appear to have been legitimate.

Sentencing for Kritopoulos is scheduled for Sept. 29. Bates and Plunkett have not yet received sentences. Plunkett is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 15, while Bates’ sentencing has not been scheduled, according to the statement.