Jasmin Polanco is no longer allowed to practice law after her license was revoked by the Massachusetts Board of Overseers. (File photograph)
The Massachusetts Board of Overseers has officially revoked Jasmin Polanco’s license to practice law after the Methuen attorney was convicted on federal bank fraud charges.
A Suffolk County Supreme Court judge made Polanco’s disbarment official in late October, two months after the former real estate closing attorney was sentenced to 15 months in prison for her role in a bogus short sale scheme that defrauded banks across the Merrimack Valley.
“The respondent resigned and was disbarred following her conviction on federal bank fraud charges,” the official court judgment filed by the Board of Overseers said.
Her license was temporarily suspended in December 2017 as the case unfolded in a series of court hearings, which ultimately resulted in U.S. Senior District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf’s decision to sentence her to three months of supervised release and a fine of $1.2 million.
According to the Department of Justice, Polanco and her co-conspirators—broker Greisy Jimenez, mortgage loan officer Vanessa Ricci and real estate closing attorney Hyacinth Bellarose—submitted fraudulent documents related to real estate transactions called short sales, in which property is sold for less than the value of any existing mortgage debt. The scheme played out over three years and involved properties in Haverhill, Methuen and Lawrence.
Polanco’s co-conspirators all received varied prison sentences, ranging from time served for Bellarose to three years for Jimenez.