A man convicted of scamming dozens of New York City renters was sentenced to two to four years in state prison in Manhattan criminal court Wednesday, following his sentencing in the Bronx for similar crimes there in August.<\/p>\n
Juan Valoy, 47, pleaded guilty in July to stealing more than $100,000 from nearly two dozen victims across two cases, one in Manhattan and the other in the Bronx. In the Manhattan case, he pleaded guilty to one count of grand larceny for stealing around $25,000 from three victims in the form of supposed application fees, security deposits, and first months\u2019 rents for apartments he had shown them despite not owning the apartments or having any rights to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cJuan Valoy has been sentenced to a state prison term for scamming and exploiting New Yorkers looking for housing,\u201d Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said. \u201cThose who take advantage of Manhattanites looking for stable housing during New York\u2019s housing crisis will be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Bronx, Valoy was sentenced to four years in prison in August, after pleading guilty to one count of attempted burglary and two counts of scheme to defraud for stealing around $80,000 from 18 victims who had sought to rent apartments from him.<\/p>\n
His sentences will be served concurrently, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
According to prosecutors in Manhattan and the Bronx, Valoy would show desperate prospective renters renovated apartments that he had no permission to rent, and take anywhere from $2,500 to $7,000 from each of them. Valoy told them the money would ensure the apartment was held for them because there were many interested parties, prosecutors said. He would then stop returning their calls, or refuse to refund them, both DAs said.<\/p>\n
In one instance in the Bronx, he told a 10-year-old boy in front of his mother that the apartment they were viewing on a day that happened to be his birthday would be his birthday gift, prosecutors said. But when the family tried to move into the apartment she believed she had rented from Valoy, she learned it was already occupied, they said.<\/p>\n
Valoy was also previously convicted for grand larceny and scheme to defraud in Manhattan in 2015 and sentenced to 1 1\/3 to 4 years in state prison. Manhattan prosecutors said at the time he\u2019d stolen thousands of dollars from victims of a Washington Heights apartment scam, fraudulently offering to rent multiple apartments that he claimed were available to lease. Prosecutors said he\u2019d ghost victims after collecting their money.<\/p>\n