FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, February 26, 2018
Building Owner Charged with Filing 28 Forged Documents Using Dead Notary Public’s Signature to Try to Evict Tenants
Defendant Targeted Multiple Tenants with the Forged Documents
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a Brooklyn building owner was charged with forgery and other charges for allegedly using a deceased’s notary public’s stamp and signature on court filings to try to evict tenants from his apartment building in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
District Attorney Gonzalez said “This defendant attempted to fool the court by using someone else’s identity for his nefarious business plans. As Brooklyn continues to soar in popularity as a wonderful place to live, I am committed to protecting the rights of its residents.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Abdus Shahid, 64, owner and a resident of 455 Tompkins Avenue, in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Shahid was arraigned late Friday, February 23, 2018 in Brooklyn Criminal Court on a criminal complaint in which he is charged with 28 counts of second-degree forgery, 28 counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, and 28 counts of second-degree making an apparently sworn false statement. He was released without bail.
The defendant filed civil suits against five tenants he was trying to evict, claiming they damaged his property. The tenants, who were represented by the Legal Aid Society, claimed the landlord was trying to evict them for filing complaints against him with 311.
The alleged forgery was discovered when a Legal Aid attorney representing a tenant noticed the deceased notary’s signature on court filings. In his court filings, the defendant verified and purportedly signed all the documents using the notary stamp and signature of Yitzchok Ring, who died on October 6, 2014. The court documents in the eviction proceedings were filed between March 16, 2015 and September 8, 2016.
The case was investigated by Detective Investigator Jacqueline Klapak of the Kings County District Attorney’s Special Investigations Unit, under the supervision of Senior Detective Investigator Michael Seminara.
The case is being prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Vivian Young Joo, of the District Attorney’s Frauds Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Christopher Blank, Chief of the District Attorney’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Unit, and the overall supervision of Assistant District Attorney Patricia McNeill, Deputy Chief of the District Attorney’s Investigations Division.
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A criminal complaint is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt