In the following press release Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard today announced that former real estate agent Ammar Dean Halloum, 46, [pictured below] of Phoenix, has pleaded guilty to felony charges in connection with a fraudulent real estate transaction with an elderly Tucson resident.

At a hearing before Judge Richard S. Fields in Pima County Superior Court, Halloum pleaded guilty to one count of theft/financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult and one count of fraudulent schemes and artifices, both felonies. Halloum also agreed to pay over $200,000 in restitution to the victim and over $30,000 to the Attorney General’s Office for prosecution costs.

At the hearing, Halloum admitted that while working as a licensed real estate agent, he obtained title to a Gilbert home through misrepresentations and omissions.  The homeowner he victimized was suffering from dementia and living in a nursing home at the time the sales documents were signed.  Halloum subsequently flipped the property and kept the profit.   

Halloum was indicted following an investigation by Tucson Police Detective Jim Williamson, who is assigned to the Elder Abuse Task Force of the Attorney General’s Office. The Arizona Department of Real Estate has revoked Halloum’s license.

Prosecutors handling this case include University of Arizona law students Nicholas Klingerman and Trevor Allen, and Special Assistant Attorney General Gabriel J. Chin, who is also a professor at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law.  Advanced law students are allowed to appear in court under special rules of the Arizona Supreme Court.

Halloum is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 1 before Judge Fields.  For more information, please contact Anne Hilby at (602) 542-8019.