Massachusetts Woman Agrees to Plead Guilty to $19 Million Bank Fraud Conspiracy

BOSTON – A Feeding Hills, Mass. woman has agreed to plead guilty in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud 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, 59, has agreed to plead guilty to an Information charging her with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. A plea hearing has not yet been scheduled by the Court. 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.

According to court filings, 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, Jeannette 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. It is alleged that Gendron conspired with Masaschi and Norman to defraud various financial institutions and a commercial lender.

Specifically, Masaschi and, allegedly, Gendron and 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, Norman and their companies allegedly made some or no payments and ultimately defaulted on the loans, causing substantial losses to the financial institutions and commercial lenders.

According to Gendron’s plea agreement, between May 2016 and November 2018, Masaschi, and allegedly Norman, fraudulently obtained or sought to obtain approximately $60,123,000 in loans and caused a total loss of $19,305,473.  

The charge of conspiracy to commit bank fraud provides for a sentence of up to 30 years in prison, three 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 James Crowley, Acting 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 defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.