By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-at-large
“There is a deed theft, mortgage fraud, and an eviction crime syndicate operating throughout Brooklyn,” Evangeline Byars, co-organizer of The People’s Coalition to Stop Deed Theft, told Our Time Press. “There is a mass foreclosure scheme. An attorney said the foreclosure courts are the new trading grounds for Black and Brown generational wealth.”
Gone viral are the videos of Bed Stuy homeowners fighting back after being aggressively challenged for their property.

Last month, real estate broker Florence Lichmore-Smith was recorded protesting the legality of a construction team working inside her own home on Patchen Avenue in Brooklyn, as she was initially prevented from entry by police from the 81st Precinct.

Carmella Charrington also went viral defending the home her family has lived in for 60 years, as she charged that an LLC had fraudulently acquired her Jefferson Avenue brownstone last year. Byars said that there is now a physical presence protecting the homes, as men and young people are stepping up to join the Coalition’s rapid response unit.

State Assemblywoman Stefani Zinerman told Our Time Press, “Deed theft is one of the most devastating—and least visible—forms of displacement facing Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights, and our seniors are being deliberately targeted. This crime strips elders and vulnerable community members of their homes, their security, and generations of Black wealth, often through fraud, intimidation, and the misuse of legal and law-enforcement systems.”

New York’s Attorney General Letitia James has made deed theft a felony.
“Deed theft is a heartless and merciless crime that steals people’s homes without their knowledge,” AG James told Our Time Press. “For many New Yorkers, home ownership represents the pinnacle of years of diligent saving and hard work. That’s why deed theft is such a serious crime – and why my office has worked so hard to bring deed thieves to justice under our new state law.”

From 2014 to 2023, the New York City Sheriff’s Office counted nearly 3,500 complaints of deed theft throughout New York City, with more than 1,500 complaints in Brooklyn and 1,000 in Queens.
“This is a crime syndicate in Brooklyn of epidemic proportions,” Byars told Our Time Press, “Where you have shell LLCs, judges, lawyers, notaries, and politicians working all together in a cooperative manner to ensure that each part is doing what they need to do–and that includes all working in tandem.

These patterns are so large and far-reaching that you can’t even ignore them. You have people under the age of 50 holding 80 deeds, cases in courts to evict homeowners, something about this is not right, and the courts are ruling against owners.

The banks are running a monopoly situation where they are committing purchaser to purchaser fraud, where you have your deed, you own it, and the bank is assigning your mortgage to someone else, and then you get a notification saying that you have a new person in charge of your note.”

The targeted homeowner can be a “victim of fraud of service,” said Byars, notices of foreclosure action either not sent, or deliberately sent to the wrong addresses, but it is registered to the court that the person was served. A default judgment and a landlord-tenant action for eviction is put in place.

“So you technically lost your home by default, and they do this every day, all day long in foreclosure courts.”
Dora Pekec, Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani Transition Spokesperson, told Our Time Press, “White-collar criminals are scamming New Yorkers—especially seniors, immigrants, and Black New Yorkers—out of their homes.

As mayor, Zohran Mamdani will create an Office of Deed Theft Prevention to prevent these schemes and protect working families. Under a Mamdani administration, New Yorkers will have a real ally standing up to bad actors robbing New Yorkers and their families of equity, housing stability, and peace of mind.”
The Mamdani administration said they will hire “investigators, forensic accountants, and attorneys to stand up for families who are the target of fraud.”

Since 2017, prosecuting “skilled scammers, including disbarred attorneys and repeat offenders,” the office of District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said that their Real Estate Fraud Unit “obtained 30 indictments against 42 defendants in numerous deed theft cases, pertaining to over 70 properties. All of these cases resulted in convictions.” There were several jail terms, and some homes returned to “their rightful owners whenever legally possible.’ Gonzalez said, “This unmatched success has led to a precipitous decline in deed fraud complaints made by Brooklyn residents.”

Deed theft victims turned up in court last month when Gonzalez announced that a disbarred Brooklyn attorney, Sanford Solny, 68, had been sentenced to two and a half to seven years in prison for stealing the deeds to 11 residential properties across Brooklyn, primarily from Black “homeowners in financial distress.” He was convicted of 13 counts of third-degree criminal possession of stolen property.

“This defendant is a serial scammer who deserves every day he will now spend behind bars,’ determined Gonzalez. “We are committed to continuing to prosecute deed theft cases vigorously to protect vulnerable individuals from falling prey to fraudsters who seek to exploit high property values.”

Byars told the paper, “This crime doesn’t impact someone like me, who is 45 years old, or 30 or 20. It affects someone who has paid off their mortgage, a retired transit worker. A retired police officer, who has paid off their mortgage and then some fraudster slaps a note on you from a fraudulent bank saying that you owe them $822,000, and they are foreclosing on you.”

Two weeks ago, after meeting with members of the People’s Coalition to Stop Deed Fraud Coalition, Gonzales assured them that, “We will continue to work together with homeowners and focus on this important issue by prosecuting any case in which we have evidence beyond a reasonable doubt to meet our legal requirements.”

Byars said, “It is not just deed theft prevention; we need intervention and enforcement. The Coalition is now working in collaboration and in cooperation with the Deed Theft and Mortgage Fraud Taskforce at the DA’s office, modeled after the Domestic Violence Unit.”

Assemblywoman Zinerman told Our Time Press in a statement, “My work has focused on treating deed theft for what it is: a civil and human rights crisis. I have pushed for stronger enforcement of existing laws, including unlawful evictions under RPAPL § 768, launched a cease-and-desist campaign to establish no-solicitation zones and deter predatory actors, and escalated these concerns to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the United Nations to highlight the racial, age-based, and gendered patterns underlying this abuse.

I have also pressed for greater interagency coordination and accountability to ensure fraudulent deeds are challenged before families are unlawfully removed from their homes.”

Looking ahead to 2026, Zinerman stated, “I am advancing a comprehensive package of legislation to establish a statewide framework to prevent, defend against, and restore losses caused by deed theft and fraudulent property transfers. This includes the Protect Our Homes Act, which would create real-time property fraud alerts, modernize county recording systems, and strengthen early detection statewide.”