Sunday, February 20, 2022

Brooklyn Grandmother Says Decades-Long Home Was Swiped Out From Under Her In Sale-Leaseback Foreclosure Rescue Scam; Now Resists Eviction, Refuses To Go Down Without A Legal Fight

 In Brooklyn, New York, The Real Deal (New York) reports:

  • A new legal filing and old mortgage documents shed light on an eviction saga in Crown Heights in which a 98-year-old woman lost ownership and then tenancy of her family home of 70 years.
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  • Last week, city marshals evicted Ida Robinson and her family from the stately row house at 964 Park Place. The Robinsons had in 1951 become the first Black family on the block. But facing foreclosure in 2015, the matriarch was tricked into a deal that stripped her of her house’s deed, according to her lawyer.
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  • The lawyer, Adam Birnbaum, wrote that the type of title transfer likely used by the LLC buyer targets homeowners “who are almost always Black and usually elderly.”
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  • The document filed in housing court by Birnbaum, a lawyer at Abrams Fensterman referred to Robinson by Attorney General Letitia James, states that the transaction between Robinson and the LLC has many of the elements of a scam used to trick homeowners out of their deeds.
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  • In those schemes, Birnbaum wrote, an LLC is often created specifically for the transaction. The LLC characterizes the documents that it draws up as a refinancing, which Robinson believed her deal was. But they actually transfer the title to the LLC.
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  • Once the LLC has secured ownership, it transfers the title to a second or third owner to ensure the process is “difficult or impossible to unwind,” Birnbaum wrote. The LLC that allegedly bought 964 Park Place from Robinson immediately transferred the title to another LLC. Five days later, Menachem Gurevitch, Robinson’s current landlord, transferred it to himself.
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  • The attorney wrote that Robinson is adamant that she never authorized anyone to sell her home and that she never executed any documents transferring the title.
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  • Robinson’s granddaughter [Sherease] Torain told Law360 that her “grandmother never received a dime” from the deal. Court records show that Robinson initially “refused to consummate the sale,” which resulted in a lawsuit, settlement and eventually, her transer of the deed, Law360 reported.
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  • Torain said her grandmother was 92 years old when the transaction took place. “To force this on, that’s elder abuse,” Torain said. “These are white-collar criminals and no one’s talking about it.”
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  • Birnbaum said the transfer that Robinson supposedly agreed to should have been void from the get-go. Andre Soleil, the attorney who represented her in the transaction, has since been disbarred after allegations that he took control of a Harlem nonprofit’s buildings and sold one for $1.4 million — funds the group never received, the New York Post reported.

For more, see Documents shed new light on Crown Heights eviction saga (Lawyer makes case for deed theft; owner took out mortgages during subprime bubble).

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Posted by Home Equity Theft Reporter at 12:01 AM