(Bloomberg) -- True crime fans with a flare for modern architecture are in luck: the Department of Justice will soon list the Arc House in East Hampton, N.Y.

The 6,400-square-foot home at 50 Green Hollow Rd., which sits on more than two acres, was owned by Jessica Meli, wife of Joseph Meli, a New York businessman who pleaded guilty last year to defrauding investors. He was embroiled in one of the various Broadway ticket scams that coincided with the astronomical rise of Hamilton.

In 2017, Meli was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with running a Ponzi scheme. He pleaded guilty to securities fraud for leading investors to believe their money would go toward buying and reselling theater and concert tickets, but in reality, those funds went to paying off other investments such as payments on this East Hampton property. In March 2018, Meli was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison. 

In addition to serving time, Meli has to forfeit more than $100 million. His wife, Jessica, was listed as a relief defendant in the SEC case “for the purpose of recovering investor funds allegedly in her possession, including $3 million which was used to purchase the house in East Hampton in her name,” according to a press release from the commission. Last November, she agreed to settle with the SEC.

The list price for Arc House is not yet available; neither the broker nor the property manager replied to a request for comment.

Built in 2010, it was designed by architect Maziar Behrooz and is one of the more unique homes in the Hamptons, a summer community and financial industry vacationland brimming with traditional New England-style shingled houses. Inspired by an airplane hanger, part of the four-bedroom, three-bath house is subterranean, according to a 2011 Wall Street Journal tour of the property. A flexible layout includes space for an art gallery and a massive 30-by-60-foot living room with 16-foot-high ceilings and finishes such as limestone, applewood, and black walnut. There’s an outdoor pool, and East Hampton’s main beach is a 10-minute bike ride away.

Enzo Morabito, top broker in the Hamptons for Douglas Elliman, said he would price the property at $3.2 million, which accounts for some of its shortcomings, such as proximity to railroad tracks. 

The involvement of the U.S. government, as well as Meli’s business dealings, shouldn’t impact the sale, he said, characterizing the property as a fascinating, engineering feat. “Whoever is going to buy it is going to have to be very, very unique. Hopefully he’s not going to jail, too.”  

“Meli directed his own version of a Broadway production, where the lead character deceives investors into giving him money that he pockets and spends on himself, or uses to pay off other investors,” Geoffrey Berman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement last year.

A lawyer for Joseph Meli did not return a request for comment. Jessica Meli hung up the phone.

 

To contact the author of this story: Polly Mosendz in New York at pmosendz@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Justin Ocean at jocean1@bloomberg.net

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