Kenneth P. Thompson
District Attorney
Kings County
June 13, 2016
COMMUNITY PARTNER IN JUSTICE NOTIFICATION
Brooklyn Man Sentenced to up to 18 Years for Stealing Properties in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Fort Greene
Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson today announced that a Brooklyn man was sentenced to 9 to 18 years in prison for stealing three Brooklyn properties by forging deeds, pretending to be an attorney and selling, or attempting to sell, them to buyers. He sold one empty lot twice and received bids on another home in excess of $1 million.
According to trial testimony, in early 2011, the defendant, Carl Smith, 50, of Lafayette Avenue, stole two properties by filing backdated deeds containing the forged signatures of the owners. One was a lot in Bedford-Stuyvesant, which the defendant proceeded to sell twice: in March 2011 for $12,000 and in April 2011 for $11,000. The other property was a three-story brownstone in Fort Greene, which had been owned by a woman who died in 2001, and which now belonged to her family members. The defendant filed a deed backdated to before the woman’s death and tried to sell the property for more than $1 million, but he was not able to produce a valid title to complete the sale.
The Court nullified the fraudulent deeds, returning the properties to their lawful owners.
The defendant also, according to trial testimony, negotiated a deal in October 2012 to sell a multi-family home in Bedford-Stuyvesant for more than $20,000 by falsely representing himself to be the owner’s attorney and creating a fraudulent deed.
District Attorney Thompson said, “This defendant shamefully stole houses and other property from their rightful owners by using forged documents, engaging in deceit and committing outright fraud. He did so solely to exploit the lucrative real estate market in Brooklyn. And now he will spend many years in prison where scammers like him belong.”
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Read the full press release here.