Three individuals (Angela Jazmin Ramos Malipca, Yuan Kuei Li, and Abdur Rahman) and three companies (Great Neck Acquisitions Inc., White Lotus Consulting Inc., and Ocean Property and Trading Inc.) have been indicted for stealing the deed to a brownstone in the Harlem section of New York City.
The property on West 131st Street was valued at over $1 million and owned by Okryun Marrero, who died in 2018 and left the property to her husband, children and grandchildren. On April 18, 2024, Ramos posed as an heir of the owners, to purportedly sell the property to Li for $950,000, who posed as a straw buyer. Ramos allegedly signed multiple documents related to the sale and transfer of the property, including the contract of sale and the deed.
According to the charges in the case, the deed allegedly contained the purported signatures and personal identifying information of other members of the Marrero family. However, no one in the Marrero family signed the deed or gave permission or authority to anyone to sign on their behalf.
On the same day Li purported to buy the property, he allegedly sold it to Rahman and Great Neck Acquisitions for $1.5 million. But no sale transaction occurred, and the defendants allegedly used the stolen property as collateral to obtain a mortgage and construction loan in the total amount of $1.6 million. Great Neck Acquisitions listed Rahman, White Lotus Consulting and Ocean Property and Trading as guarantors on the loan.
In late April 2024, the deed and the mortgage were recorded with the New York City Department of Finance Office of the City Register, listing Great Neck Acquisitions as the owner; Rahman signed on behalf of the company. Ramos subsequently cashed three checks totaling roughly $254,000, which were funds obtained from the mortgage and construction loan. Rahman allegedly received $487,375 from the construction loan into Great Neck Acquisition’s bank account, which he controlled. Rahman also sent approximately $265,000 of the fraudulently obtained loan proceeds to a corporate bank account for MSK Construction Team Inc., a construction company controlled by Li, who allegedly used portions of that money to pay for ongoing construction on the Harlem property.
The three individuals and three companies were charged with acting in concert in a New York State Supreme Court indictment with one count each of Grand Larceny in the First Degree, Criminal Possession of Stolen Property in the First Degree, Mortgage Fraud in the First Degree, two counts of Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree, two counts of Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, and four counts of Identity Theft in the First Degree.
“As alleged, six defendants worked together to take advantage of a grieving family, posing as heirs, and committing deed theft to steal their property,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “During a time when housing is scarce, I will not stand for fraudsters coming to Harlem to try and perpetrate these pernicious schemes. This type of alleged conduct preys on longtime New Yorkers, and we will prosecute those who take advantage of homeowners.”
How about adding that you will prosecute the defendants to the fullest extent of the law. These heirs deserve that and you need to set a sentence that will deter these hirribly detrimental actions by heartless criminals.
How does that even happen 7 years later? Shouldn’t the rightful heirs have already had the property in their name?