{"id":248160,"date":"2026-05-29T20:52:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/248160\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T20:52:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T20:52:42","slug":"18-indicted-for-alleged-mortgage-deed-fraud-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/248160\/","title":{"rendered":"18 Indicted for Alleged Mortgage, Deed Fraud Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eighteen people have been indicted in Manhattan in relation to alleged deed theft and mortgage fraud, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The alleged scheme involved stealing the deed to a Manhattan brownstone through identity theft, artificially inflating the value of the property and cashing out via a mortgage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nationally, law enforcement agencies have been increasingly bringing cases on alleged mortgage fraud, often involving schemes to inflate property values or take out mortgages on third-party properties. New York prosecutors are focusing on these schemes and hoping to root out further offenders, with the district attorney accusing more than a dozen people this week of taking part in just one scheme.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have forgeries and falsified documents,\u201d Bragg said at a press conference Thursday. \u201cAnd as you can see from the fact that they were able to get a mortgage, it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bragg\u2019s office accused defendants of conspiring to steal the deed to a residential brownstone on West 131st Street in Manhattan. The owner of the property died in 2018. Years later, using falsified documents, including birth certificates and UCC liens, defendants posed as heirs to the property.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In April 2024, defendant Angela Ramos, claiming to be an heir to the property, allegedly sold the building to Yuan Kuei \u201cMike\u201d Li, who posed as a straw buyer. Li purchased the property for $950,000, but then sold the property again to Great Neck Acquisitions, owned by defendant Abdur Rahman, for about $1.5 million. Prosecutors said no money actually changed hands in the transaction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The defendants then used the property as collateral to get a mortgage and construction loan totaling more than $1.6 million. The district attorney\u2019s office declined to name the bank that originated the mortgage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Defense attorneys for Ramos, Li and Rahman did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The three were indicted in October and each pleaded not guilty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This week, the district attorney arraigned 15 more defendants associated with the case, accused of falsifying documents and taking part in the scheme.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an entire, we allege, ecosystem,\u201d Bragg said. \u201cYou have people who procure the identities, you have lawyers, you have real estate brokers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other cities, prosecutors and news outlets have brought attention to alleged multifamily mortgage fraud schemes<\/a>. Alleged perpetrators typically inflate expected rents or sell properties at inflated prices to straw buyers to obtain outsized mortgages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Deed theft, where scammers fraudulently or covertly transfer ownership of a home without the true owners\u2019 knowledge, has captured significant attention<\/a> in New York this year. Brooklyn politicians, including Council member Chi Oss\u00e9<\/a> and Borough President Antonio Reynoso, have spoken out about the scams through prevention workshops and protests. Last month, Mayor Zohran Mamdani launched his Office of Deed Theft Prevention. Victims are typically discussed as aging Black homeowners.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bragg said he had personally seen scammers try to take his parents\u2019 Harlem brownstone, especially as his mother suffered from Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Although deed fraud is typically thought of as an issue affecting Brooklyn or Queens, which have more single-family brownstone stock, there are also cases in Manhattan, Bragg said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is pernicious fraud, people preying on our most vulnerable population,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tRead more
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Meet the players tied to the big mortgage mess<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a>
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Council\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Daily Dirt: Deed theft takes center stage<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Councilmember\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Council member arrested while protesting alleged deed theft<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eighteen people have been indicted in Manhattan in relation to alleged deed theft and mortgage fraud, Manhattan District…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,96989,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-248160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-deed-theft-mortgage-fraud","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}