New Bedford Man Sentenced for Affordable Rental Scam

TAUNTON (WBSM) — A New Bedford man has been found guilty of stealing over $20,000 by false pretenses, pretending to be the owner of affordable rental properties in the city.

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office announced that Victor Tiu Lopez was found guilty today in Taunton Superior Court on one count of witness intimidation, eight counts of larceny over $1200 by false pretenses, and four counts of larceny under $1200 by false pretenses.

He was indicted by the Attorney General’s Office in September 2022.

Lopez was sentenced to two back-to-back two-year sentences in the Bristol County House of Correction, followed by one year of probation.

Between February and April 2022, Lopez falsely presented himself as the owner, or soon-to-be owner, of affordable apartments for rent in New Bedford and collected over $20,400 in deposits from 13 unsuspecting prospective renters.

The AGO said “many of the exploited renters were members of a Guatemalan Mayan immigrant community in New Bedford and were particularly vulnerable to exploitation due to being in housing crisis.”

Lopez was “also convicted of threatening to kill a community organizer from Centro Comunitario De Trabajadores, a nonprofit in New Bedford that supports immigrant workers, who had been assisting the rental scam victims in reporting Lopez’s fraudulent contracts,” the AGO said.