Private lender sues New York investors for ‘extensive’ fraud in Baltimore

A private mortgage lender that dished out dozens of loans to New York-based investors is suing them and associated individuals and companies, alleging they carried out “an extensive real estate fraud ring” in Baltimore that cost the Texas-based lender more than $14 million in losses.

Filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Maryland, the lawsuit, from AmeriTrust Mortgage Corp., said it made about 91 loans to the group to secure properties in Baltimore starting in 2024. It’s suing the defendants for multiple counts, including breach of contract, common law fraud and negligent misrepresentation. It also makes a claim under a federal racketeering statute designed to dismantle the Mafia.

Among the named defendants are New York businessmen Benjamin Eidlisz and Eluzer Gold, who have been linked to more than 700 Baltimore properties that leaned heavily on loosely regulated commercial loans created specifically for landlords to grow their portfolios. Also named are Maryland appraisers Jason Taylor and Christopher Actie, Fidelity National Title Insurance Co. and Shraga Lerner, a Baltimore real estate professional.

AmeriTrust says Aaron Spielman, as principal of New York-based firm First Loans, brokered many of the loans between the New York investors and the larger lender.

The lawsuit alleges the group collaborated to deceive AmeriTrust into giving it loans it couldn’t pay back.

Attorneys for AmeriTrust said the investors’ scheme relied on shell companies that would buy each property for about $40,000-$50,000. Then, without making improvements, one company would quickly sell a house to a related company for an inflated price — sometimes 300% higher than the original — without disclosing the relationship between the buyer and the seller.

In documents submitted to the lender, the investors would also omit information about the previous sales price, the lawsuit alleges. And, instead of giving lenders an accurate estimate of a property’s worth, appraisers provided inflated values, AmeriTrust says.

After making the loans, AmeriTrust said, it would immediately sell them to other financial institutions on a secondary mortgage market.

But, shortly after the loans were disbursed, the investors stopped making payments and the homes began going into foreclosure.

AmeriTrust said this triggered buyback clauses that required the company to take back the loans it had sold — loans that now “have little to no value and are uncollectible.”

“The buying entity had no intention of ever repaying the loan and knew full well that the lender was grossly under-collateralized,” the lawsuit states, “given that the actual reflection of the property’s value was only a fraction of the loan amount.”

In July, AmeriTrust sold all of its loans to Union Home Mortgage, an Ohio-based lender, for an undisclosed price.

Eidlisz said he was not aware of the lawsuit and declined to comment. Lerner declined to comment. Other defendants could not immediately be reached for comment.

A representative of AmeriTrust declined to comment.

Reporting from The Banner has documented the growing number of foreclosures among homes owned by the New York investors — and how city residents have been caught in the fallout. Investors in Baltimore had increasingly been using a financial product called a debt service coverage ratio loan to rehabilitate housing that some traditional banks wouldn’t touch.

Federal investigators have been probing the New York investors and their associates, whose activities could trigger massive losses for private lenders, money managers and life insurers who ultimately bought the loans.

Baltimore government officials said in November they were investigating the cohort for possible fair housing violations.

Starting in early 2025, hundreds of homes connected to the New York group went through foreclosure and two affiliated companies declared bankruptcy. By June 2025, Wall Street finance firms warned against issuing more loans to Eidlisz, Gold and Lerner.

The private credit industry has expanded rapidly into America’s rental housing market in recent years, made possible in part by the spike in DSCR loans. Baltimore seems to have served as ground zero for DSCR loans — and the potential problems with them.

The Daily Record first reported the federal lawsuit.