Defendant provided forged lease agreements and fraudulent rent rolls for properties in Massachusetts and Connecticut to defraud lenders
BOSTON – A Feeding Hills, Mass. woman pleaded guilty on June 13, 2025 in federal court in Springfield, Mass. to defrauding commercial lenders by providing false and fraudulent rent rolls and forged lease agreements for properties located in Springfield, Mass.; East Longmeadow, Mass.; and Enfield, Conn.
Christine Gendron, 61, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni scheduled sentencing for Sept. 30, 2025. In a related case, on April 22, 2025, Louis R. Masaschi pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of wire fraud. United States Judge Mark G. Mastroianni scheduled Masaschi’s sentencing for July 23, 2025.
Gendron was a certified public accountant who worked as the Financial Manager for JLL Realty Developers, LLC (JLLRD), a limited liability company for which her sister, Jeanette Norman, and brother-in-law, Masaschi, served as partners. Masaschi and, allegedly Norman, were partners in dozens of limited liability companies, including JLLRD, through which they owned primarily commercial and some residential property in Western Massachusetts, Connecticut and elsewhere. Gendron conspired with Masaschi, and allegedly Norman, to defraud various financial institutions and a commercial lender.
Specifically, Masaschi, Gendron, and allegedly Norman, provided materially false, fictitious and fraudulent financial information, including false rent rolls and forged lease agreements, to obtain loans for their companies. After receiving the loans, Masaschi, and allegedly Norman and their companies made some or no payments and ultimately defaulted on the loans, causing substantial losses to the financial institutions and commercial lenders totaling more than $19 million.
Jeanette Norman has pleaded not guilty and is pending trial, scheduled for October 2025.
The charge of conspiracy to commit bank fraud provides for a sentence of up to 30 years in prison, five years of supervised release and a fine of up to $1 million or twice the gross gain or loss. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven H. Breslow of the Springfield Branch Office is prosecuting the case.
The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The remaining defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
