The ringleader of a Queens deed theft crew has been sentenced to 3 to 9 years for stealing houses from aged or disabled homeowners, state Lawyer Basic Letitia James introduced.
Marcus Wilcher, 48, and his crew pocketed greater than $1 million in proceeds — utilizing solid paperwork — from the fraudulent gross sales of three homes in Jamaica and St. Albans.
“Marcus Wilcher and his associates focused aged and weak New Yorkers with a predatory scheme that inflicted important monetary and emotional hurt,” James stated in a press release Friday.
“New Yorkers work their total lives to safe a house, and deed theft threatens to rob them of the generational wealth they’ve constructed for his or her households.”
Wilcher, of Lengthy Island, would determine houses “in poor or run-down situation with absentee homeowners,” James stated.
Then 53-year-old Stacie Saunders, a former mortgage dealer, would market them to buyers at a considerably discounted below-market value to make fast gross sales, James defined when saying the arrests and indictments of 5 crew members in December 2022.
As soon as there was curiosity from an investor, Wilcher obtained private data from the actual homeowners to create faux driver’s licenses, social safety playing cards and financial institution playing cards.
Disbarred legal professional Anyekache Hercules, 49, created sure solid authorized paperwork used within the theft of the houses.
Wilcher and Saunders discovered 4 individuals, together with crew members Dean Lloyd, 63, and Jerry Currin, 67, to impersonate the actual homeowners at contract signings and closings.
The crew laundered the proceeds by out-of-state banks, James stated.
Wilcher pleaded responsible to grand larceny in Might and was sentenced Friday to 3 to 9 years in jail for his function within the deed theft ring and the theft of two further properties in Queens.
Hercules pleaded responsible to the rip-off and can obtain as much as three years in jail come September, the AG’s workplace stated.
Currin and Lloyd pleaded responsible to felony counts of providing a false instrument for submitting, whereas Saunders awaits trial.
Deed fraud is on the rise nationwide.
In a significantly notable case, federal prosecutors charged neighborhood organizer and actual property agent Zina Thomas in March with conspiring to steal greater than 30 houses in and round Detroit by forging quitclaim deeds.
The authorized paperwork allowed her to switch properties to faux entities and not using a conventional sale, after which promote them to unwitting third events.
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