A Florida man was sentenced in federal court after he and his wife operated a rental property scheme in Western Pennsylvania.
Paul Andrew Gulbronson, 59, of Hudson, Fla., was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for wire fraud conspiracy. Troy Rivetti, the acting United States Attorney, made the announcement.
According to court documents, Gulbronson and his wife, Kelly Bonilla, ran Citrona houses from Florida and Johnstown, Pennsylvania, from 2017 to 2019. The pair exploited Citrona as a housing scheme, soliciting investors to buy Citrona-owned homes or properties in Johnstown while promising to rent “fully renovated” properties to Section 8 residents.
Rivetti claimed Citrona purchased distressed properties and sold them to largely out-of-state investors at exorbitant prices. Citrona claimed to have fully renovated, tenanted, and managed the properties.
According to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) documents, Citrona purchased over 100 homes for around $2 million and then resold them for $6 million.
It was discovered that many of the properties were unusable, while others were simply vacant lots. According to Rivetti’s announcement, Citrona received around $5.3 million in investor funds, with the investors losing $5 million.
“Over the course of several years, Paul Gulbronson misled investors regarding the condition and status of their Citrona Homes properties in order to swindle millions of dollars from those victims, and then—upon learning that he was under investigation for these crimes—fled the United States, leaving dozens of dilapidated properties in his wake,” Rivetti said. “As a result of the outstanding work of our law enforcement partners, Gulbronson has been brought to justice and held accountable for his egregious criminal activity.”
From at least June 2017 until May 2019, Gulbronson and Bonilla ran Citrona offices in the Holiday, Fla., region, including call centers staffed by personnel who made calls to investors.
Citrona also operated a management office on Market Street in Johnstown from October 2017 to May 2019, which handled the scheme’s property management.
Rivetti stated in the release that Gulbronson’s wife, Bonilla, is currently a fugitive in Panama.