A long-time con artist was sentenced today to 240 months in federal prison for running a multimillion-dollar real estate scam that conned elderly people out of their homes, gouging them with fraudulent threats of litigation and extorting monthly payments for illegal foreclosure and eviction delay, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. Michael “Mickey” Henschel of Van Nuys, Calif., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips. A restitution hearing in this matter has been scheduled for December 2. Henschel pleaded guilty on May 13 to one count of mail fraud after spending years filing fraudulent documents on homeowners’ properties, and then using the fraudulent filings and fraudulent litigation to steal money from victims, sometimes stealing homes outright, and other times extorting settlement payments in actual or threatened civil litigation.
