NYC Convicted Deed Thief, Welfare Cheat Now Faces New Charges In Alleged Straw Buyer Scam

In New York City, the New York Daily News reports:

• Old con men never die - they just find a new scam. Herbert Steed, who famously went to jail in the '90s for collecting welfare while living large in a Trump Tower pad,(1) is now charged with a fresh $1.5 million mortgage ripoff. The 78-year-old fraudster faces up to 65 years in prison for allegedly using fake buyers to purchase properties in Harlem and Richmond Hill, Queens.(2) [...] In addition to the federal charges, Steed is awaiting sentencing for forging a deed and stealing a Queens woman's house.

For more, see Herbert Steed, who once collected welfare while living in Trump Tower, charged in mortgage scam.

(1) According to the story, he applied for and received public assistance in the early '90s when he was living in a spacious 37th-floor Trump Tower apartment with marble baths. Steed plunked down a $27,000 deposit, which he allegedly swindled from a tour group, to land the swank pad, which he shared with a 23-year-old girlfriend. On his welfare application, Steed claimed he had no job and no income and lived in a small apartment in Queens. Steed was tried and convicted for the scam. He was sentenced to 5-to-15 years in prison for scamming welfare and the tour group. He was paroled in 1999 after serving the minimum.

(2) According to the story, the federal court complaint states that $206,000 from the alleged dirty deals went to Home Mergers LLC, a shady foreclosure firm. It in turn wrote a check for $20,000 to an entity Steed controlled called Pan African Tours. Prosecutors said Home Mergers was run by Maurice McDowall, a Brooklyn man who last year pleaded guilty to swindling dozens of people out of their homes in foreclosure rescue, equity stripping scams. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.