Woman charged with posing as UES landlord, collecting rent
May 01, 2009 06:50PM
From left: 224 East 81st Street, 405 East 90th Street and 313 East 61st StreetBy Candace Taylor
A female impostor illegally took over three Upper East Side buildings after the death of her landlord ex-boyfriend and collected rent from at least one unwitting tenant, authorities said.
Flora Soto, 54, is being held on a $250,000 bond following her arraignment today in Manhattan Criminal Court on 21 felony counts of forgery, grand larceny, criminal possession of a forged instrument, offering a false instrument for filing and scheme to defraud, according to the district attorney's office.
The buildings, at 224 East 81st Street, where she lives, 405 East 90th Street and 313 East 61st Street, are still owned by the estate of Fred Ziess, the ex-boyfriend who died seven years ago, the trustee of Ziess' estate, his brother Alan, said.
Soto, who was represented at her arraignment by Victor Castelli of the Legal Aid Society, is being held in lieu of a $250,000 bond or $100,000 in cash and will appear in court next Wednesday. Castelli could not immediately be reached for comment, but Pat Bath, a spokesperson for the Legal Aid, said: "We will conduct a thorough investigation of the charges against our client."
Soto circulated letters and held meetings informing tenants that she was the new landlord, according to the criminal complaint. She also "demanded rent," from tenants, the criminal complaint says, collecting more than $1,000 in rent from at least one tenant. Ziess said the small payout may have been because Soto had a difficult time convincing tenants to pay her the rent.
"She would knock on doors and demand rent," said Mark Bederow, the attorney representing the Ziess estate. "She tried to take over vacant apartments in her own building. She changed the locks and hired her own painter. One can only suspect that her intent was to rent them. It's brazen to a level that's rarely seen."
After the death of Fred Ziess, the owner of a portfolio of buildings in Manhattan, Soto filed a lawsuit claiming ownership of the three Upper East Side buildings, the complaint says, but a judge ruled that she did not own them.
Ziess said Soto likely went to the office of the city register and filed false documents showing her to be the buildings' owner, and a deed in her name was recorded, which helped her to pose as the building landlord in dealings with city and state agencies and attempt to collect rent from tenants.
"Once a criminal records the deed, they can do all kinds of damage," Bederow said.
Ziess said he's spent years and hundreds of thousands of dollars battling Soto's claims of ownership, even after the lawsuit was decided in his favor. He said he approached the city's register's office, the police and the DA several times but didn't get far because Soto had the deed to the property.
"If she doesn't own the building, how does she have a deed?" he recalled being told by officials. "It's a nightmare," he added.
Bederow the attorney said the office of the city register doesn't require clerks to verify the information before recording deeds, and that more safeguards should be put in place to make it harder for criminals to commit deed fraud.
"How do people like her just show up one day at the city register's office and the next day own three buildings?" Bederow said. "It's mind-boggling to me."
Looking at the ease with which building ownership can be established, the New York Daily News published a story in December about how a newspaper staffer was successfully able to "steal" the Empire State building by submitting bogus paperwork to the city to transfer the deed to the property to him.
Ziess, the buildings' trustee, said he wasn't able to get mortgages or refinance his buildings because of Soto's claims to the properties.
"She was stealing the buildings in plain view of everyone," he said.
Soto was investigated by the Manhattan DA's office when she allegedly filed affidavits to lift lis pendens from the buildings, forging the signature of Joshua Price -- one of Ziess' attorneys -- the complaint says. A clerk was suspicious and called Price, leading to an investigation by the DA's detective squad, who arrested Soto yesterday.
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Comments
Marc Lewis
Thank god this attrocity has finally been taken care of as this has been a nightmare for Alan Ziess. The whole system needs to be analyzed as it is insane that someone can wreck such havoc on someones life for so long without any repercussions. I hope there ae better safeguards put in place to prevent this from happening to anyone in the future.
Comment #1 Posted By: Marc Lewis 05/01/09
Anonymous
OMG!!!!! This wacko tried to sell 90th street to a friend of mine but could not produce financial documents and tax statements. She was VERY rude and more than a bit nuts, saying her HUSBAND was murdered and she owned the properties. i met her through her assistant who was completely innocent in this deal. Glad we did not get further involved!!!!! Only in NY folks!!!!
Comment #2 Posted By: Anonymous 05/01/09
Anonymous
This is an amazing story.... Yet, the precedent has been set in stone in NYC Housing court. For some reason our esteemed judges allow tenants with low rent controlled leases to rent out their apartments at market rates at huge profits. The system also encourages a market where any rent control tenant receives huge pay-outs for giving up their apartments. So you see Ms Soto was foolish, you don't even need a deed to pretend to be a landlord in this city.
Comment #3 Posted By: Anonymous 05/01/09
Anonymous
A review of the case Soto v. Estate of Ziess, reveals that she didn't prove the buildings were hers, no ruling was ever made that said she didn't own the buildings. Why would the case go on 7 years, if the estate could prove they were not her buildings ?
Comment #4 Posted By: Anonymous 05/02/09
Anonymous
the legal system can be taken advantage of and this allegation is false.
Comment #5 Posted By: Anonymous 05/02/09
Anonymous
Who was paying the taxes?
Comment #6 Posted By: Anonymous 05/02/09
Marc Lewis
The estate of Fred Ziess was paying all expenses and is registered as the owner for over 30 years. This scammer came along a few years ago when she preyed upon the former owner who was dying of Parkinsons and she came up with this plan to try to defraud the estate. It is the worst kind of crime there is to take advantage of a sick dying man and then defraud the family and fool the city.
Comment #7 Posted By: Marc Lewis 05/03/09
Roger Moore
Fred Zeiss can now rest in peace. This woman is as evil as they come.
Comment #8 Posted By: Roger Moore 05/03/09
Anonymous
All the city does is charge landlords exorbitant property taxes. The city provides nothing (ZERO, ZIP, ZILCH) in return. It doesn't even attempt to protect landlords from frauds like this. Step up Bloomberg. Do something about this crap!
Comment #9 Posted By: Anonymous 05/03/09
Anonymous
Hey Mark, the estate was collecting the rents, so of course they paid the expenses. Why didn't the estate just bring an action to quiet title ? OR WAS THE ESTATE AFRAID SHE REALLY OWNS THE BUILDINGS ?
Comment #10 Posted By: Anonymous 05/04/09
Marc Lewis
#10 who are you with your nasty comments?
Comment #11 Posted By: Marc Lewis 05/04/09
Anonymous
LOL...according to the record in Dept of Finance...Soto transferred the properties to her name in May 13,2007 claimming Fred Ziess was deceased. Then October 28, 2008 they were transfered back to Fred Ziess, trustee
Comment #12 Posted By: Anonymous 05/04/09
Anonymous
well, at least she tried to steal the business away from a dead guy, others stole the business from their partners while they were alive and many deposits werent returned to many customers, but of course thats another story. WHAT AN OUTRAGE!
Comment #13 Posted By: Anonymous 05/04/09
Anonymous
Time to sell for real Don't be like Gottlieb's family. Just sell, pay your taxes, move on.
Comment #14 Posted By: Anonymous 05/05/09
Anonymous
Watch out Alan, too much praise never comes free.
Comment #15 Posted By: Anonymous 05/05/09
Anonymous
there are some real nuts posting here for sure!
Comment #16 Posted By: Anonymous 05/06/09
Anonymous
all about her is fake ...
Comment #17 Posted By: Anonymous 07/01/09
Anonymous
I've been a tenant of one of Ziess's apartments since 1978. He took ownership in 1986. I'm disabled, yet for the last 4 months, they've known that my toilet is broken, and leaking - and they've yet to fix it. In 2003 Ziess filed a fraudulent lawsuit against me, after his own negligence - removing the bulkhead and allowing rain to pour into my apt for a full year - during some of the worst noreasters. My experience, as well as the evidence I've accrued - showing the type of person he really is... says that his credibility is non-existent. Maybe it's time to Youtube my case...
Comment #18 Posted By: Anonymous 10/27/09
Anonymous
Why hasn't the press sought Flora Soto's side of the story ? I've never seen such one-sided journalism. Has Ziess managed to buy the press ? A man who allows the abuse of a disabled man has no credibility. Knowing Ziess - and Fred wasn't much better... he tried to demolish the building while I was living in it, and did major construction without permits. There was also a Partner with Fred, whose name quickly vanished... Hmmmm... did he even legally own the building ?
Comment #19 Posted By: Anonymous 10/27/09