Janelle DeFreitas, of Uniondale, convicted of $75G bank loan fraud, Nassau DA says

A Uniondale woman was convicted on Wednesday of operating multiple schemes to fraudulently obtain a $75,000 loan from local banks, Nassau County prosecutors said.

A jury deliberated for less than five hours before convicting Janelle DeFreitas, 45, of second-degree grand larceny and third-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, while acquitting her of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument.

DeFreitas, who was previously convicted of running a mortgage fraud ring that fabricated documents for loans and used sham buyers to steal more than a million dollars from lenders, was remanded and is due back for sentencing on Dec. 18. As a second felony offender, she faces a maximum of 7½ to 15 years in prison.

"Janelle DeFreitas is a serial grifter, moving from one attempted fraud to the next, until she is finally able to swindle her way into a payday," Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a news release. "This is the second felony conviction this defendant has received for a financial crime in less than 10 years. Just over a year after being released from custody for her last brush with the law, DeFreitas hatched the plan for this score and began committing the crimes charged in this case. If there’s an angle to be played, this defendant will play it."

Dennis Lemke, DeFreitas' Mineola-based attorney, said he disagreed with the conviction but agreed with the acquittal.

Between June 29, 2021, and Jan. 18, 2022, DeFreitas ran several schemes to fraudulently secure business loans from several Dime Bank branches, using another individual to apply for the loan, prosecutors said.

During the first attempt, DeFreitas visited a branch in Queens and applied for several express loans totaling more than $400,000 for businesses supposedly owned by an unnamed second individual, officials said.

DeFreitas opened Dime accounts for four businesses, which allegedly operated out of a single location in Brooklyn, put herself as a signer on the accounts and presented bogus corporate documents purported to be certificates of incorporation, authorities said.

But during a site visit to the Brooklyn business, the bank manager found the businesses were not operational, declined the loans and closed the accounts, prosecutors said.

Nearly two months later, DeFreitas attempted the same scam with a different individual at a bank location in Garden City, seeking a $100,000 loan, records show.

But prosecutors said DeFreitas gave a false name and was denied the loan because of credit issues.

She returned to the branch additional times in August 2021, still using a fake name and opened an account for a company called Katrina the Movie 1 Inc., with a third individual who said he was the owner of the Brooklyn-based business, officials said.

The pair provided fraudulent documents showing the company had more than $1.2 million in annual sales, including a forged TD Bank statement, and bank officials ultimately approved a $75,000 loan, prosecutors said.

She then withdrew nearly all of the money, which prosecutors said she used to pay debts and bills. 

DeFreitas, who was arrested in late 2023, would unsuccessfully attempt the identical scheme at a Dime Bank in Westbury and a Webster Bank location, authorities said.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.