Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School Board member Daniel Aho, the newest member of the board, is a defendant in a Massachusetts civil lawsuit alleging he and his son-in-law were involved in a scheme tied to the fraudulent sale of a Concord property.
Aho was selected May 4 to fill a seat vacated by longtime board member Chris Ratcliffe.
In a phone interview with the Ledger-Transcript, Aho said he had lost “a tremendous amount” of money but declined to discuss details of the case.
“We’re trying to work it out and I cannot discuss the case at this time,” he said. “We were fraudulently sold a piece of land and we’ve invested a tremendous amount of money building a house.”
According to a complaint filed in Middlesex Superior Court in September 2024, Halla Shami Jaraki and Omar Jaraki — owners of a 1.84-acre lot at 211 Mattison Drive in Concord since the early 1990s — discovered in August 2024 that someone impersonating Halla Jaraki had listed and sold the property without their knowledge.
The buyer, Max Geesey — a real estate agent at Aho Properties and Aho’s son-in-law — purchased the lot for $525,000 in May 2024 through Bernard Aaron, a real estate agent with Verano Realty Group, then affiliated with Coldwell Banker. The property had been listed for $699,900.
Aho Development Corp., owned by Daniel Aho, began permitting and construction on the lot. Aho also personally holds a $1.8 million mortgage on the property, recorded the day of the closing.
The Jarakis’ lawsuit alleges quiet title, trespass, tree-cutting, civil conspiracy and negligence against Aho, Geesey, Aaron and the two attorneys who handled the closing.
The FBI’s Boston Financial Crimes Squad is investigating the transaction, and grand jury subpoenas were issued to both attorneys in September 2024, according to court filings.
In a joint filing on March 16, the parties told the court they were working toward a settlement but needed more time for discovery. The court granted the request March 25.
