Michael Mastro

Michael R. Mastro (born June 1, 1925) is an American real estate developer, who was in business for forty years managing apartments and mid-size office parks in Seattle. He declared bankruptcy in 2009. Mastro and his wife, Linda, a former Bellevue grade school teacher, moved to France in 2011. They were arrested in 2012 in Lake Annecy, in the French Alps, and faced extradition hearings. After several months of house arrest, they were freed in June 2013 after a French court denied a request for their extradition back to the United States, finding that while they stole the life savings of elderly people, they themselves were too elderly to (potentially) be incarcerated. Mastro's bankruptcy has been described as the largest personal bankruptcy in the history of Washington state. Prior to the bankruptcy, the Mastros moved many of their assets, including a $15 million home in Medina, Washington, into an irrevocable trust based in Belize. Biography Michael Mastro started his career in the real estate business in 1967, developing real estate projects worth at least $2 billion over 40 years, including commercial buildings and houses. He was involved in hard money loans, mostly to desperate real estate developers, with second or third deeds of trust on projects as collateral. His company, Michael R. Mastro Properties, was well known in and around Seattle, the location of most of its projects and properties. The company's developments include Vancouver's Town Plaza, originally called the Tower Mall, the Oasis water park (sold in 2001) in Palm Springs, Allison Park Apartments in Des Moines, and Ballard Lofts in Seattle.