Queens DA Richard Brown
A real estate investor and an attorney were charged with running a mortgage fraud scheme in Queens and could face up to 15 years in prison, according to a news release from the office of Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
Jose Toral, a Long Island real estate investor, and Thomas Zacharia, a Staten Island attorney, allegedly conspired in a complicated scheme to steal more than $65,000 from a Queens Village couple in financial distress. [more]
Three years after the Related Cos. began developing its 26-acre Hudson Yards project, the company is now trying to find a tenant willing to commit to occupying at least 600,000 square feet of office space, Crain’s reported. To land its key tenant, Related is offering either to construct a building and sell it to that company or to provide a big break on the rent. The 12 million-square-foot space, bordered by the High Line and the Hudson River, will run from 10th to 12th avenues and from West 30th to 33rd streets. The $15 billion project is expected to take as long as 15 years to complete, and will include three office buildings, nine residential towers with a total of 5,000 apartments, a mall, a school, a cultural center and 12 acres of open space. [more]
(Updated 3:10 p.m., July 13)
A former managing agent for a collection of five Queens apartment
buildings has been charged with embezzling almost $950,000 in
tenant-paid maintenance fees, according to the Queens district
attorney’s office. The defendant, Michael Richter, and his company,
Charter Management Realty, allegedly siphoned off the cash over a
six-year period, concealing his scheme behind a lock- [more]
(Updated 3:10 p.m., July 13) A former managing agent for a collection of five Queens apartment buildings has been charged with embezzling almost $950,000 in tenant-paid maintenance fees, according to the Queens district attorney’s office. The defendant, Michael Richter, and his company, Charter Management Realty, allegedly siphoned off the cash over a six-year period, concealing his scheme behind a lock- [more]
The Queens District Attorney handed down a 327-count indictment against five individuals who allegedly orchestrated a $2 million mortgage fraud scheme by using fake identities to buy and sell Queens properties. District Attorney Richard Brown described the fraud as “brazen,” and said he believed that the “mortgage frauds perpetrated by these defendants were among the root causes of the severe economic downturn of the last few years.” Four of the five defendants, three of whom own the Club Kalua nightclub, have been captured, while the fifth remains at large. Club Kalua was the site of the infamous 2006 Sean Bell shooting incident, in which police shot three men including killing Bell, on the morning after his bachelor party. If convicted in the mortgage scam, the defendants could face prison terms of up to 15 years each. The three properties involved in the scheme, 120-18 132nd Street in Ozone Park, 56-10 Waldron Street in Corona, and 116-36 139th Street in Jamaica, were allegedly purchased with fake identities. “In this particular case, one of the frauds was so brazen that it allegedly involved the sale of a house by two people posing as sellers — one of whom was dead — to a third person posing as a buyer — with the defendants pocketing an astounding $250,000,” Brown said. “These types of financial crimes have real-life consequences and will not be tolerated.” TRD
A Flushing couple is facing charges that they conned a dozen victims out of $16 million in property and valuables including two buildings in Woodside and one in Jamaica Estates during seven real estate closings in Queens, the Queens district attorney’s office said. According to prosecutors, Matthew McEntee, who claimed to be an attorney, banker or accountant, along with Mariwa Mora attended the tainted closings on Feb. 27 for properties in Queens, Staten Island, Long Island, New Jersey, California and Pennsylvania. McEntee, 50, and Mora, 45, both of Flushing, were charged with multiple counts of grand larceny, possession of stolen property, possession of a forged instrument and scheme to defraud, prosecutors said. The couple was awaiting arraignment earlier today, and each faces up to 25 years in prison, the district attorney’s office said. TRD
Former Queens resident Rafael Vascones has pleaded guilty to charges of tax, mortgage and credit card fraud, according to a press release from the Queens district attorney’s office. He was sentenced to six months in jail and more than $400,000 in restitution and penalties. Vascones, 54, who was running two businesses — Integrated Business Communications and NA Networking Group — out of Queens, was simultaneously maintaining false identities, forging documents, and evading taxes, among other crimes, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. Vascones falsified documents in applying to refinance his property in Whitestone with Washington Mutual in order to receive cash payouts from the loan. Following his jail time, Vascones will serve five years probation. TRD
