A manager of numerous sober homes in Massachusetts was sentenced in federal court in Boston for his involvement in three different fraud schemes involving sober homes in the Greater Boston area, the Mass Save Program and a mortgage lender. Nicholas Espinosa, 39, formerly of Randolph, was sentenced 30 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Espinosa was arrested and charged in March 2023 along with co-conspirator Daniel Cleggett. Cleggett, Espinosa and a sober home client entered into a conspiracy to defraud a New York-based family trust that was paying for the client’s room and board at Brady’s Place, located in Quincy.
Specifically, Cleggett and Espinosa overcharged the family trust for room and board by up to $12,500 per month by submitting false and fraudulent invoices to the family trust. Cleggett and Espinosa would then issue “refund” checks to the client in furtherance of the fraud scheme. From approximately October 2019 to December 2021, Cleggett personally, and through straw purchasers including Espinosa, purchased three residential properties in Weymouth and Boston to use as sober homes. Cleggett, Espinosa and others submitted false information and fraudulent documentation including falsely representing that the three properties were intended to be purchased as primary residences when, in reality, each was intended to be a sober home.