Lien placed on Jack Silvia's Somerset home for restitution and $77,250 check forfeited

SOMERSET — John Silvia Jr., the one-time lawyer, Somerset teacher and School Committee member serving a 57-month federal jail sentence on fraud and related charges, has had a lien placed on the home he’s owned in town for 40 years and forfeited a check for $77,250 to United States government authorities.

U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. signed the final forfeiture order on Tuesday as part of the restitution of $360,000 and a $1,700 special assessment issued with his sentence on April 26, the court document shows.

The three-page order also prominently links a conviction charge of “witness tampering” with a Citizens Bank check for $77,250 that federal officials seized on Feb. 12, 2016, O’Toole’s order this week says.

Larry Traiman of Lynn told the court in a victim’s witness statement at sentencing he had been a Dana-Farber Cancer Institute nurse who was helping treat Silvia’s now-deceased wife, but he was “swindled” out of $60,000 the nurse of 32 years loaned him.

Silvia, Traiman said in court, “cynically and viciously exploited the trusting and compassionate relationship that I had for years with a patient, his wife, to use for his nefarious uses.”

Silvia, 69, is serving a nearly 5-year sentence at Fort Dix FCI, a minimum security Federal Correctional Institution in New Jersey stemming from his conviction on 17 fraud-related charges at separate trials in U.S. District Court in Boston in February 2016 and the second trial in February 2017 involving funds he took from Traiman for his illegal investment schemes and later tried to repay when going to trial.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons lists his release date as June 15, 2022.

Silvia lost his appeals for a retrial and a subsequent one after sentencing on the length of the sentence and on a request he serve it in a federal prison closest to Boston to be near his elderly mother, three children and five grandchildren.

Silvia’s first trial conviction involved three victims that lost approximately $300,000 involving a “subscription agreement” for Advance Space Monitor, a Fall River company for which his convictions said he created a “fake agreement” and forged the name of its chief executive officer, Dale Tommer.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a “notice of lien for fine and/or restitution” in Fall River District Registry of Deeds against Silvia. It lists his home at 305 Foley Ave., Somerset, and an amount of the fine/restitution of $361,700.

It was issued on Aug. 27, 2018, by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan T. Mockler and filed this week on Sept. 5, following the April 26 judgment, Fall River district registry records show.

O’Toole’s order states that “the United States Marshals Service is hereby authorized to dispose of the ($77,250) currency in accordance with applicable law” and the “United States of America" is "now entitled to the forfeiture of all right, title or interest.”

The Town of Somerset lists Silvia and his late wife, who died two years ago, as owners of the 2,940-square-foot colonial on .3 acres that is assessed at $452,400 and that they purchased in 1978 for $73,100.

The lien on the Somerset property means if it is sold or refinanced, Silvia would have to pay the government up to the $361,700, said Christina Diorio-Sterling, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. "It cements the position with the creditors," she said.

While the criminal felony convictions of the well-known Fall River area lawyer most everyone called “Jack” involved a handful of individuals, his fraudulent business activities have affected hundreds of people and families.

In an unrelated civil bankruptcy case dating to the late 1990s, Silvia was ordered to pay back $12 million to approximately 400 investors, many of them close friends, relatives and even his law partner who invested more than $500,000 with him, those court filings show.

A review of the names on that bankruptcy list show more than 20 individuals or couples invested at least $100,000 — several invested hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A Fall River woman who said her late husband invested $240,000 with Silvia — unbeknownst to her — also gave a victim’s witness statement at sentencing.

“We are not the only family that has been affected in the last 20 years. People lost their homes, their retirement funds, college funds,” said the woman of retirement age, whom the court listed with the initials as H.S. and who declined to give her name to The Herald News.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the U.S. District Court forfeiture order this week should have said it was solely for a confiscated $77,250 check, while the U.S. Attorney's Office placed a lien on John Silvia Jr.'s property at 305 Foley Ave., Somerset, but there was no forfeiture order of that property. A second correction is that the Federal Correctional Institution where John Silvia Jr. is being held is Fort Dix FCI in New Jersey.

Email Michael Holtzman at mholtzman@heraldnews.com or call him at 508-676-2573.