Scott Menaged: From Property Wars to Federal Prison

Scott Menaged, legally Yomtov Scott Menaged, is a former Phoenix real estate investor and Property Wars reality television cast member who is serving 17 years in federal prison for a sprawling fraud operation that cost more than 200 victims upward of $30 million. He pleaded guilty in October 2017 to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, and was sentenced that December.¹

How People Know the Name

Menaged appeared on Property Wars, a Discovery Channel series that followed Phoenix investors competing to buy foreclosed homes at auction, often sight unseen. The show ran for two seasons in 2012 and 2013.² Off camera, he ran a real estate investment business and a chain of Phoenix furniture stores operating under the name Furniture King. Both would end up at the heart of his crimes.

The DenSco Phantom-Loan Scheme

The main fraud centered on DenSco Investment Corporation, a hard money lender founded in 2001 by Denny Chittick. Between January 2013 and June 2016, Menaged borrowed roughly $734 million from DenSco across approximately 2,712 loans. Only 96 of those loans financed actual property purchases. The other 2,616 were for what prosecutors called “phantom” transactions that never existed.³

Menaged submitted fake purchase documents to cover the gap and used the proceeds of new loans to pay off old ones, a Ponzi-style loop made worse by DenSco’s 18% interest rate. On at least 126 properties, he also exploited delays in recording foreclosure deeds to borrow from two different lenders against the same house, letting each believe it held the first-position lien.³

Identity Theft at Furniture King

When the loan proceeds thinned out, Menaged turned to a second scheme. Working with three employees at his Furniture King stores, he obtained the names and personal information of recently deceased people and used those identities to submit fraudulent credit applications to banks for furniture purchases that never happened. That portion of the fraud alone caused more than $2 million in bank losses.¹⁴

How He Kept It Hidden

Menaged went to real lengths to stall discovery. When Chittick confronted him about discrepancies in 2013, Menaged lied, claiming his wife had cancer and that a “cousin” was behind the fraud. He later told Chittick that $31.8 million was being held by Auction.com. In 2016 he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy without listing DenSco as a creditor.³ The stolen money funded luxury cars, expensive homes, and travel.¹

A joint investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Homeland Security eventually unraveled the schemes. Menaged was arrested in May 2017, and a federal grand jury returned a 24-count indictment on May 16, 2017, charging wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to defraud.⁴⁵

The Sentence

Menaged pleaded guilty on October 17, 2017.⁶³⁷

The 204-month term was stipulated in the plea agreement and came in eight months below the low end of the applicable guideline range. The government’s sentencing memorandum called Menaged a “financial predator and con artist.”³ Menaged filed a motion to vacate his sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 in 2018. Judge Snow denied it on September 30, 2019, and declined to issue a certificate of appealability.⁸

The Fallout

The court found total losses of $34 million across more than 200 victims. Restitution was concentrated in three places:

DenSco Investment Corporation: $31,446,001.79
Wells Fargo Bank: $1,145,392.81
Synchrony Bank: $967,013.16

Denny Chittick, the DenSco founder most exposed to Menaged’s lies, died by suicide in 2016 after suffering massive losses from the fraud.⁹ At sentencing, Judge Snow connected Chittick’s death to his “sense of honesty and personal responsibility” and his inability to repay investors and family, while stating that he was “not holding [Menaged] personally and directly responsible” for Chittick taking his own life.⁸

DenSco itself was placed into receivership. Per Menaged’s own later court filings, investors had recovered roughly $7 million through the receivership, a fraction of the $31.4 million owed.³

Related Cases Involving Family Members

The Menaged name shows up in two other federal fraud cases, and they are easy to confuse with Scott’s.

His father, Joseph Menaged, was indicted in April 2019 in connection with laundering roughly $11.5 million of Scott’s money. Prosecutors said that between 2011 and 2017 Joseph used funds transferred from Scott to buy luxury condominiums at One57 in Manhattan and Faena House in Miami Beach, and that he and his longtime accountant Stephen Brown falsified tax forms and business records to secure loans from BankUnited and Morgan Stanley. Joseph pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, was sentenced to time served, and agreed to pay $350,000 to the case receiver and stay current on the loans and taxes tied to the properties. Charges against Brown were dismissed after a deferred prosecution agreement.¹⁰

Scott’s son, Brandon Scott Menaged, a 22-year-old Scottsdale resident, was indicted on December 3, 2024, for wire fraud.¹¹¹²¹³ The Department of Justice press release did not reference a connection to Scott Menaged’s earlier case.

Where Things Stand

Scott Menaged was 40 at sentencing in December 2017. On a 204-month term, his projected release falls around 2034, though the Bureau of Prisons does not publish detailed release projections through court records. His post-conviction challenge was denied in 2019, and the Ninth Circuit route was effectively closed when the district court declined a certificate of appealability.⁸

1
U.S. Department of Justice. Former Real Estate Investor Sentenced to 17 Years in Prison for Multiple Fraud Schemes
2
KTAR News. Former Property Wars Star Sentenced to 17 Years in Federal Prison for Fraud
3
GovInfo. USCOURTS-azd-2:18-cv-02417
4
ABC15. Property Wars Star Awaiting Sentencing After Guilty Plea of Stealing Identities
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CBC News. Scott Menaged Indicted
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KTAR News. Property Wars Star Agrees to $2M Jail Time Deal in Phoenix Fraud Case
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ICE. Former Phoenix Real Estate Investor and Reality TV Personality Sentenced to 17 Years
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GovInfo. USCOURTS-azd-2:17-cr-00680
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CNBC. Reality Star Turned Fraudster Highlights the Risks of House Flipping
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The Real Deal. Father of Property Wars Star Pleads Guilty to Bank Fraud
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PACER Monitor. USA v. Menaged
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U.S. Department of Justice. Scottsdale Man Sentenced to Nearly 3 Years in Prison for Fraud
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KTAR News. Scottsdale Man Sentenced for Fraud