Saturday, February 6, 2010

3 lawyers, corrections officer charged w/real estate fraud

From the Daily News:

A man who collected $16,250 in rent for an apartment he didn't own was among a dozen people charged Thursday with real-estate fraud in Brooklyn.

Three lawyers and a city correction officer were also named in the indictments announced by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes.

The indictments charge that:

- Earl Davis placed an ad on Craigslist and collected a full year's rent in advance after giving the victim a forged lease.

- Correction Officer Margareth Blanc collected more than $30,000 in federal rent subsidies with forged applications while living in her sister's apartment.

- Deric Nelson worked a phony deed scam, making it look like he owned a building he'd already sold - then rending vacant apartments.

- Attorney Alexander Landy bought a home, took out a $500,000 mortgage, never registered the deed or the loan, and then sold the home without paying a nickel to the lender. He was able to fool the buyer's title company because there was no public record of the mortgage.

- Another lawyer, Alan Rocoff, a court-appointed referee in the sale of a church, deposited $200,000 into his own account instead of turning the money over to the court.

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