Former IT Director and Wife Convicted for Embezzling More Than $1 Million from Employer

HOUSTON - Former director of Information Technology (IT) Services for Orion Real Estate Services Inc. and his wife have entered guilty pleas related to a conspiracy in which they stole more than $1 million, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez today.

Bradley David Freitas pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, while Loren Elizabeth Freitas, entered her plea last Friday to conspiracy to commit mail fraud. From approximately April 14, 2009 through Jan. 14, 2014, Bradley Freitas embezzled approximately $1,009,634.45 from Orion Real Estate Services Inc., at times with the help of his wife.

Orion is a full-service, multi-family residential real estate management company serving a wide variety of investors, ranging from institutions, private partnerships, foreign investors, individual owners and government housing organizations. Orion had more than over 665 employees and provides management for all types of multi-family properties, and had a growing portfolio of more than 25,000 apartment homes under management throughout the nation.

Bradley Freitas was hired as the Director IT services for Orion on March 5, 2009. Throughout his employment, he created false explanations on internal Orion company justification documents so that the unauthorized purchases were masked as IT related items. Bradley Freitas would miscode Orion justification documents to mask the unauthorized personal purchases for several years and made these unauthorized purchases with the company credit cards issued to him for IT purchases only. The merchandise was purchased from online retailers, such as Amazon, NewEgg and CDW, and mailed either to his office or home. Several of the items, such as a dining room table with chairs, a Gucci purse and wallet, home entertainment systems, televisions and more, were purchased for the Freitas’ own personal enrichment. Other items, such as ipads and laptops, were sold on eBay or to their own private customers in New York and elsewhere for them to obtain a profit. At times, Loren Freitas would direct her husband as to what to purchase and then mailed the various items to be sold to their customers via FedEx or UPS.

U.S. District Judge Sim Lake accepted the guilty pleas and has set sentencing for Mr. and Mrs. Freitas on July 21 and June 14, 2017, respectively. At that time, Bradley Freitas faces up to 20 years in federal prison, while Loren Freitas faces a maximum five-year-term of imprisonment. Both convictions also carry a maximum possible $250,000 fine. Both were permitted to remain on bond pending their sentencing hearings.

The FBI conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Suzanne Elmilady and Melissa Annis are prosecuting the case.