Franklin Lakes 'Flipping NJ' Investor Pleads Guilty to Fraud, Bribery

FRANKLIN LAKES, N.J. — Cesar Humberto Pina, the Franklin Lakes real estate investor who built an online following as “Flipping NJ,” pleaded guilty Thursday, Oct. 22, to running a multimillion-dollar investment fraud, laundering money for drug traffickers and bribing a Paterson, N.J., official, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey announced.

Pina, 48, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo in Newark to a four-count superseding information charging him with one count of wire fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy, one count of bribery of an agent of a program receiving federal funds, and one count of Travel Act bribery, according to the release. By pleading guilty, he admitted those four crimes. Sentencing is scheduled for March 10, 2027.

“Cesar Pina admitted to misappropriating millions of dollars meant for real estate investments, laundering cash for narcotics traffickers, and bribing a politician in furtherance of real estate projects,” U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer said in the release. “It is hard to imagine a more varied spate of criminal activity, which robbed investors of their life savings, helped facilitate drug trafficking, and undermined confidence in our elected officials.”

What prosecutors say he did

According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court, as summarized by the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

• The investor scheme. Pina partnered with a celebrity disc jockey and radio personality to run real estate seminars around the country and built a large social media following. Starting in at least 2017, he took money from individual investors for the supposed purchase, remodeling and sale of specific properties in New Jersey and other states, often promising returns of 30% or more within four to five months. Instead, he commingled and misappropriated the money, used new investors’ funds to pay earlier investors “in a Ponzi-like scheme,” and spent investor money on unauthorized business and personal expenses. The office said he fraudulently obtained and misappropriated millions of dollars.
• Drug money. Pina conspired to launder illicit funds, including proceeds from the sale of controlled substances, for people he knew were involved in narcotics trafficking and other crimes.
• The Paterson bribe. Pina bribed a local official of Paterson in connection with real estate projects in that city. For example, the office said, he gave the official cash and other bribes in exchange for official action, assistance and influence on his “Old School 5” development project, which had applications pending before the Paterson Zoning Board of Adjustment.

The release does not name the Paterson official or the disc jockey, and Bergen TV is not naming them.

What he faces

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the maximum penalties are:

• Wire fraud: 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, whichever is greatest.
• Money laundering conspiracy: 20 years in prison and a fine of $500,000, or twice the value of the property involved, whichever is greater.
• Bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds: 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greatest.
• Use of facilities in interstate commerce to facilitate unlawful activity under state law, namely bribery (Travel Act): five years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greatest.

Those are statutory maximums. The judge will set the sentence on March 10.

Three years in court

Pina was first arrested on Oct. 18, 2023, on a criminal complaint charging one count of wire fraud, and was released on a $1 million secured bond with electronic monitoring, according to an Oct. 19, 2023 release from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey Field Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The complaint said the scheme ran from about 2017 through about May 2023 in Passaic and Bergen counties and elsewhere.

On July 10, 2025, a federal grand jury indicted him on six counts: two counts of wire fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy, two counts of money laundering, and one count of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, according to a release posted by IRS Criminal Investigation. That indictment also accused him of laundering money that a person working with law enforcement described as drug proceeds in a sting operation. The four counts in Thursday’s plea do not include the two standalone money laundering counts.

Pina’s case then became one of two at the center of the court fight over who could lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey. In August 2025, he moved to dismiss his charges, arguing that Alina Habba was unlawfully serving as acting U.S. attorney. A federal judge denied the dismissal but disqualified Habba from his prosecution, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed that ruling in a Dec. 1, 2025 opinion, according to the appeals court’s decision. The case was stayed while that question played out.

After the District Court appointed Frazer as U.S. attorney in March 2026, a grand jury returned a superseding indictment against Pina on April 6, 2026, according to the court docket. Two days later, the judge handling the leadership challenge denied Pina’s disqualification motion as moot, lifted the stay and sent the case back to Arleo.

Who worked the case

Frazer credited special agents of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the DEA, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation, and thanked the Franklin Lakes Police Department for its help. In the 2025 announcement, the office said the case was part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carolyn Silane, Edeli Rivera, Aaron Webman and Marko Pesce are prosecuting the case. Pina is represented by Gerald Krovatin of Newark.

What’s next

• March 10, 2027: Sentencing before Judge Arleo in Newark.

Sources: U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, release of Oct. 22, 2026; DEA New Jersey Field Division, release of Oct. 19, 2023; criminal complaint, Mag. No. 23-13255; IRS Criminal Investigation, release of July 10, 2025; U.S. v. Giraud, Nos. 25-2635 & 25-2636 (3d Cir. Dec. 1, 2025); docket, U.S. v. Pina, No. 2:25-cr-00436 (D.N.J.), including the joint status report of April 1, 2026. Featured photo: Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, Newark. Ajay Suresh, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.