BOSTON — A manager of numerous sober homes in Massachusetts has been sentenced to federal prison for fraud schemes involving sober homes in the Greater Boston area, the Mass Save Program, and a mortgage lender, the U.S. Attorney said Friday.
Nicholas Espinosa, 39, formerly of Randolph, was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Boston to 30 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement.
U.S. Senior District Court Judge William G. Young handed down his sentence.
In October 2024, Espinosa pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud conspiracy; one count of conspiracy to make false statements to a mortgage lending business (mortgage fraud conspiracy); 15 counts of wire fraud; six counts of unlawful monetary transactions (money laundering); and one count of making false statements to a mortgage lending business.
Espinosa was arrested and charged in March 2023 along with co-conspirator Daniel Cleggett, Foley said.
Cleggett was the founder of the sober home business A Vision From God LLC, which owned and operated sober homes in Boston, Wakefield, Quincy and Weymouth under trade names including Brady’s Place, Lakeshore Retreat and Lambert House.
Espinosa managed the day-to-day operations of Cleggett’s sober home business, which was established in November 2016.
Prosecutors said 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, prosecutors said. Cleggett and Espinosa would then issue “refund” checks to the client in furtherance of the fraud scheme.
From 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, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Cleggett, Espinosa and others submitted false information and fraudulent documentation.
That included falsely representing that the three properties were intended to be purchased as primary residences when, in fact, each was intended to be a sober home, prosecutors said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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