E
lie Schwartz, CEO of Nightingale Properties and a Brooklyn-born real estate investor, has been sentenced to 87 months in prison for orchestrating the largest fraud in real estate crowdfunding history. District Judge Steven Grimberg handed down the sentence, which includes three years of supervised probation, in an Atlanta courthouse on Monday.

    Schwartz had over a dozen supporters in the courtroom, but they gasped when Grimberg issued the seven-year, three-month sentence. He will not be immediately taken into custody and will have to report to prison at a later date, with Grimberg agreeing to try to assign him to a penitentiary near his family in New York.

    Schwartz raised $63 million on the CrowdStreet platform in 2022 for two real estate deals but admitted to diverting around $54 million of that total to fund personal expenses, including luxury watches and a Miami condo. He pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in February and expressed remorse in a letter to the court, stating he had learned a valuable lesson.

    Prosecutors recommended a sentence of roughly seven years, citing Schwartz's cooperation and lack of a criminal history. However, over a dozen victims expressed disappointment with the Department of Justice's recommended sentence this month.