Former Citi Habitats agent charged with conning renter out of $100K
October 09, 2008 04:04PM By Candace Taylor
A fledgling former Citi Habitats sales agent, Leif Lopez, was busted for allegedly scamming an apartment hunter out of $100,000 in a phony transaction negotiated at Starbucks.
Lopez, who was arrested Monday on charges of second-degree grand larceny and is being held in lieu of $7,500 bail, stole $100,000 in cash from a client this summer, according to the criminal complaint. The client believed she was renting two apartments at Rockrose's Midwest Court at 410 West 53rd Street for a two-year period, but Lopez absconded with the money, the complaint said.
Lopez is currently licensed as a real estate salesperson at Citi
Habitats' 465 Columbus Avenue office, according to the Department of
State, which grants and oversees real estate licenses. But, the managing director of that Citi Habitats branch
office, Eric Hamm, said Lopez hasn't worked for the company in several
months.
While at Citi Habitats, Lopez did very little business, Hamm said. “He
just wasn't producing,” Hamm said. “We just sort of parted ways.”
Citi Habitats spokesman Christopher Dente said that Lopez was terminated in March.
Patxy Peguero, a daytime doorman at 410 West 53rd Street, said the victim discovered the loss months later when she attempted to move in.
“She came here to move in with this funny lease,” Peguero said. “She was asking me for the key to move in, and I said, 'are you kidding me? How could you give somebody that much money in cash?'"
The victim said she'd signed a lease and given Lopez the cash during three meetings at a nearby Starbucks, the doorman said. But Lopez never filled out paperwork at the on-site leasing office for the building.
Lopez and the victim had come into the building several times to look at apartments, but “didn't do any business here,” Peguero said.
Peguero called the police when he heard of the woman's plight. The $100,000 -- the woman's life savings -- has not been recovered, the New York Post reported today.
Lopez will plead not-guilty in court today, according to his attorney, Daniel Lynch.
Lopez had a short stint at Living Real Estate Group, based at 225 West 35th Street, between Seventh and Eighth avenues. According to Jodi Beaubien, director of commercial leasing and sales at the firm, Lopez trained at the company in late spring, but then fell off the radar.
“He just trained with us, and we never saw him again,” she said.
Lopez will next appear in court October 10. The Department of State said there were no complaints filed against him.
Lopez started in real estate about five years ago as a rental agent for Boaz Gilad, the founder of Brooklyn-based ORE International, a real estate portfolio management and development company.
Gilad, who is the author of McGraw Hill's “Real Estate Millionaire: How to Invest in Rental Markets and Make a Fortune,” said Lopez worked for him for about four months, and he remembers him as a “nice guy,” but an average salesperson. “He wasn't brilliant at it,” he said.
Lopez moved to Miami after they worked together and they haven't spoken in over a year, Gilad said, adding that he'd thought Lopez was no longer in real estate.
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Comments
Anonymous
So if he was terminated from Citi Habitats before this happened, why did the writer take such a cheap shot at the firm? Obviously, Citi Habitats had nothing to do with this. Suprised at TRD for publishing this!
Comment #1 Posted By: Anonymous 10/09/08
Anonymous
obviously he learned this type of behavior at Citi Habitats.
Comment #2 Posted By: Anonymous 10/09/08
ny agent 1
Agree - totally out of context. The guy had other jobs at other firms
Comment #3 Posted By: ny agent 1 10/09/08
manhattan lister
Who wrote this? Is The Real Deal a gossip magazine now????????
Comment #4 Posted By: manhattan lister 10/09/08
Anonymous
the guy is a criminal. there are bad people out there, and nobody is to blame other than him.
Comment #5 Posted By: Anonymous 10/09/08
Anonymous
this makes citi look really really bad
Comment #6 Posted By: Anonymous 10/09/08
Anonymous
Jesus, is every commenter on this a Citi Habitats agent? You all know your company sucks and have agents who barely graduated high school...or maybe not.
Comment #7 Posted By: Anonymous 10/09/08
Anonymous
how did he manage to get 100k? with broker fees and even rent, 100k is more than any apartment i can think of?
Comment #8 Posted By: Anonymous 10/10/08
Anonymous
no one has mentioned the building she was trying to move into - when i saw the headline, i assumed (incorrectly, as it turns out) that the guy worked for rockrose. i lived at the 410 w. 53rd street building and can tell you there is no bigger slumlord in nyc than rockrose development corp. no heat in the winter (multiple housing dept. complaints), repairs not made in a timely fashion...this, keep in mind, in a 'luxury' building. 3 millionaire iranian brothers owner rockrose (henry, frederick and kamran elghanayan), but you'd think it was a housing project the way they run it.
Comment #9 Posted By: Anonymous 10/10/08
Anonymous
Congrats fly out to TRD for joining the likes of the weekly world globe! What's next? Maybe a followup about lobster-boy?? Is this the day that TRD "jumped the shark" or will you surpass it? Very irresponsible of you to include Citi in the headline. That's not his first or most recent association.
Comment #10 Posted By: Anonymous 10/10/08
Anonymous
"Lopez is still currently licensed under Citi. He wasn't terminated, he just probably didn't show up to work. You're telling me that Citi wouldn't have taken some of his commission if he didn't come up with a legit sale? get out of here. Citi should be smeared for not keeping track of its agents." That's right! Plus the victim can go after Citi for damages. The Broker is Vicarious liable for their Agents actions. A Lawyer is going to have fun with this. The What Someday this war is gonna end...
Comment #11 Posted By: Anonymous 10/10/08
Broker - not Citi-Habitat
Funny how everyone is trashing Citi-Habitat and not the jerk himself. In case you are not the brightest bulb in the box, what you should know is that it takes the State forever to correct their records when they receive a termination form from a Broker. Lopez could have been fired 6-8 months ago and notified of such and just has not had the time to remove him from the system. So chill out, don't hate the player, hate the game. And let's not forget, the lady who gave him $100k in cash had to be brain dead.
Comment #12 Posted By: Broker - not Citi-Habitat 10/10/08
Anonymous
3 meetings and you dont get the keys? sounds fishy...
Comment #13 Posted By: Anonymous 10/11/08
Anonymous
I'm not involved in the industry, but it is interesting that one name mentioned has a reputation which makes their appearance unsurprising...
Comment #14 Posted By: Anonymous 10/13/08
Anonymous
So it's Boaz Gilad's name pops up yet again in one of these cases? That's my guess.
Comment #15 Posted By: Anonymous 10/13/08
Anonymous
wow
Comment #16 Posted By: Anonymous 10/31/08
Anonymous
He learned from the Biggest crook in the game, Boaz Gilad
Comment #17 Posted By: Anonymous 02/05/09
Anonymous
It doesn't shock me that he worked for Gilad. What shocks me is that Gilad wasn't in on the deal: this sort of scheme is that slumlord scumbag's bread and butter. Someday soon, we're all going to see what Boaz looks like in an orange jumpsuit.
Comment #18 Posted By: Anonymous 05/07/09