Brooklyn DA Sets Up Real Estate Crime Squad

This caught my eye. It's in today's New York Times. Real estate crimes are up in Brooklyn: This is a job for Super Real Estate Crime Fighters!  Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes has set up a 12-member unit to battle crimes like fraud and deed forgery. Who knew it was so rampant?

With an array of real estate crimes, ranging from deed forgery to mortgage fraud schemes, adding to foreclosure rates in Brooklyn neighborhoods, the borough’s district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, says the time has come for a specialized unit to investigate and prosecute them.

The
need for such an office has been building, Mr. Hynes said, announcing
the new unit on Friday. As foreclosure rates have sharply risen in
central Brooklyn neighborhoods like Bedford-Stuyvesant, Mr. Hynes’s
office, with limited resources, has been forced to turn down real
estate investigations, and instead has referred victims to civil court
or relied on federal prosecutors, who generally concentrate on larger
schemes.

Mr. Hynes said the new 12-member unit would be
financed for two years with $875,000 in federal money and would help
people like Levi Latham, 75, a Brooklyn retiree whose house was, in
effect, stolen by a woman who took Mr. Latham’s personal information, a
prosecutor said. After executing and recording a false deed, the woman
is now listed as the owner of the house.

2 thoughts on “Brooklyn DA Sets Up Real Estate Crime Squad”

  1. This is a heartbreaking story. My parent’s are in their 70’s, they worked hard to purchase their home. I can’t imagine the horror that Levi Latham experienced in loosing his home to a thief. I just read that due to the heroic efforts of District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, his 12-unit team, and special federal funds, this awful woman Chandra Myers, who stole the deed to this mans home is now facing a jail sentence for forgery and grand larceny.

  2. how about an email to get in touch with bklyn da about sect8 nycha passing me over over 20 years and I got two marshals notices

Comments are closed.