Matt Onofrio made $35 million helping everyday people invest in real estate. Then he was indicted. Was it all a scam?
Matt Onofrio had a remarkable story. Around 2020, fed up with his career as a nurse anesthetist, the now 32-year-old Wisconsin native quit his job to start investing full time in commercial real estate.
In the meeting, Onofrio went out of his way to impress Chandler. He mentioned a book deal with the investing media company BiggerPockets and at one point held up his phone to show that his bank account contained about $35 million. By the end of the year, Chandler was sitting at a closing table in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, where Onofrio had persuaded him to buy a $16 million commercial property that housed a rehab facility.
Chandler was shocked to learn that Onofrio, whom he called one of the most"unassuming" people he'd ever met, was an accused fraudster. Onofrio seemed so benign, so completely ordinary, that Chandler had never thought to question him. Matthew Hermann, a 36-year-old radiologist who bought a warehouse from Onofrio for $6.3 million in 2020, said Onofrio positioned himself as a mentor and safety net, telling him,"I always would look out for you, and if ever push came to shove, I would help you get out of this deal." Hermann said Onofrio wound up overcharging him by $1.5 million and downplaying tens of thousands of dollars in property expenses that Hermann later had to pay.
It's easy to be a wolf in sheep's clothing. If you present yourself the right way, how are most people supposed to know? The promissory note typically amounted to the difference between the purchase price Onofrio had agreed on with the seller, and the one he'd named for his buyer. In Hermann's deal, the note was for $1.5 million. Hermann ended up paying Onofrio $5,243.33 a month on top of his mortgage payments — an extra debt that neither he nor Onofrio disclosed to the bank.
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