Police are searching for a scam artist claiming to be a Brooklyn real estate agent. Cops say the man has struck at least eight times in Bushwick and Bed-Stuy, "showing" apartments in buildings under construction to prospective renters, making them sign a fake lease and taking their cash security deposit before disappearing (a familiar crime). But until they track him down, Brooklyn police will have their hands full with the 17 other people arrested and charged with various real estate crimes recently.
Brooklyn DA Charles J. Hynes announced the arrest of 17 people charged for real estate crime, for everything from deed theft to mortgage fraud. And one victim turned out to be a former city councilman! Rafatullah Arefy, 20, was charged with creating a loan modification firm to steal $2,500 from Kendall Stewart. Ralph Baker, 61, also had the "chutzpah" (as Hynes put it) to claim a $1.7 million Brownstone, which he did not own, was stolen from him, and asked the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Real Estate Crimes Unit for their help in recovering it.
Senator Schumer said of the arrests, "Let it be known to housing scam predators and mortgage rip-off artists: there is a new cop on the beat and his name is DA Joe Hynes." Can that include landlords charging $3,000/month for a studio in a five-story walk up?
