A federal judge last Thursday sentenced Michael David Scott, 51, of Mansfield, to 135 months in federal prison for his role in defrauding banks in a condo-flipping scheme that targeted mainly Dorchester properties between 2006 and 2009. In addition to his time behind bars, Scott was also ordered to repay $11.4 million in fraudulent payments and fork over another $7.4 million, the US Attorney’s office reports.

Scott pled guilty to 32 counts of wire fraud, 14 counts of bank fraud and 22 counts of money laundering. Scott was indicted in 2010. His activity was first highlighted in a Dorchester Reporter news story in 2008 and was later exposed further in a Boston Globe investigation.

A number of other brokers and lawyers associated with Scott have already been sentenced. Last week, one of Scott’s Dorchester co-conspirators—realtor Joan Ruggiero, 78— was sentenced to nine months in federal prison and ordered to repay $4.1 million in fees she collected while in business with Scott.

Scott’s scheme targeted multi-family properties across the city, but especially here in Dorchester, beginning in 2006.  It worked like this: Scott would scoop up multi-family homes— typically three-deckers— and arrange with straw buyers for them to purchase individual units as condos. Scott submitted phony loan applications to make the deals happen. Then he and his co-conspirators would let the units go into default, often plunging whole streets into decay, while they made off with the profits from short-sale proceeds.

Scott’s shady activities raised eyebrows among other Dorchester realtors, some of whom blew the whistle. The Dorchester Reporter was the first to probe the problem in a series of articles by veteran contributing reporter Chris Lovett, beginning in July 2008.