Brooklyn developer indicted for bank fraud

A Brooklyn developer who was arrested in July for allegedly taking more than $18 million in a mortgage scam was indicted yesterday on bank fraud charges. Developer Eliyahu Ezagui reportedly told his fellow Hasidic Jews in Crown Heights that the condos he was selling had been blessed by community religious leaders. Ezagui sold the condos, at 770 Lefferts Avenue and 613 East New York Avenue, for between $90,000 and $160,000 per unit but did not turn the deeds over to the buyers, instead keeping the condos for himself, his parents, his wife and two business associates, the New York Daily News reported. He then allegedly took out more than $18 million in mortgages on already-purchased apartments, kept the money and stopped paying the mortgages.