Sanford “Sandy” Solny, a disbarred lawyer, is presently on trial in Downtown Brooklyn for allegations of deed theft. He’s accused of unlawfully buying the titles to properties owned by a number of Black and Brown householders via an actual property fraud scheme that prosecutors say spanned greater than a decade.
In keeping with the fees, Solny allegedly posed as a trusted monetary “fix-it man” to his shoppers however finally stole their properties.
The Brooklyn District Lawyer’s workplace alleges that Solny conned householders who have been in monetary difficulties. In keeping with the accusations, shoppers who visited Solny’s workplace at 3813 thirteenth Avenue have been scuffling with mortgage funds and dealing with potential foreclosures. Solny reportedly assured them he may facilitate a brief sale by negotiating with their mortgage lenders to permit the property to be bought for lower than its market worth, thereby stopping a foreclosures from showing on their credit score information.
A girl named Wabny Frazier testified that Solny took over a constructing she and her husband bought and have been planning to renovate and transfer into. They needed to maneuver to the home with their two little women. The witness has a grasp’s diploma in enterprise, bachelor’s diploma in accounting, and minor in economics; works for J.P. Morgan Chase as a knowledge reporter; and has even taken occasional actual property programs. Nevertheless, whereas on the witness stand, Frazier was unable to recall when she had signed necessary monetary paperwork that had her identify on them. At one level, she defined her confusion about paperwork she had signed by stating that she had put numerous details about the lack of her property out of her thoughts. “I needed to field it up and tuck it away to outlive,” Frazier defined.
Frazier mentioned she and her husband met with Solny in his workplace. “What was your understanding of what was presupposed to occur at this assembly?” an assistant district lawyer requested her whereas she was on the witness stand. “My understanding is that, um, he would assist to facilitate a brief sale.” “Once you say ‘he,’ who’re you referring to?” “Sandy.” “And while you say a ‘brief sale,’ what’s your understanding of what a brief sale is?” “A negotiation with a financial institution to simply accept partial fee on no matter is owed on the property.”
Frazier and her husband wound up signing quite a few paperwork whereas at Solny’s workplace. The “recreation plan,” she testified, was that she and her husband have been “to signal over the deed to Sandy in order that he would have the ability to keep up a correspondence with the financial institution and we’d not must be within the center, per se.”
The constructing had rental tenants who have been delinquent of their lease funds, which contributed to the homeowners’ foreclosures state of affairs. Solny had promised to assist with the tenants as nicely — to gather the rents till the brief sale was accomplished, which was presupposed to be inside a number of months.
The brief sale assembly happened in December 2012, however though she referred to as and texted Solny for months and later years after, Frazier by no means heard again from him in regards to the supposedly accomplished brief sale.
Concentrating on victims who have been in foreclosures
Solny’s present trial is anticipated to proceed till the tip of February. Within the meantime, anybody sitting within the court docket can take heed to the tales of on a regular basis New Yorkers who labored exhausting to buy houses within the metropolis however ended up in monetary difficulties. Each was inspired to achieve out to Solny for help, the Brooklyn district lawyer’s workplace claims, however Solny used companies he owned in Borough Park to “steal deeds, possess these properties, and economically profit from” them. The DA’s workplace claims that Solny focused “victims who owned properties that have been in foreclosures.”
Pictures courtesy Gaoussou Ouedraogo
There’s a historical past to the present trial: Solny had been indicted in Queens again in 2017 for a broader sequence of deed fraud instances. The Queens district lawyer’s workplace claimed in a press launch that Solny and 10 different defendants have been charged with “preying on New York Metropolis householders in monetary misery and defrauding them into signing over their properties.” Solny pleaded responsible to a felony within the Queens instances. 5 deeds he had stolen have been voided and returned to their rightful householders, a Queens DA spokesperson mentioned: “$100,000 in restitution [was returned] to the victims and a further $100,000 in forfeiture funds. He was positioned on a monitor, however that has since expired. He additionally acquired 5 years’ probation, which has additionally expired.”
Solny’s regulation license was suspended in April 2012, and he was disbarred on Jan. 5, 2023. James Kousouros, the prison protection lawyer employed to defend Solny, advised the AmNews that his consumer is sustaining there was no fraud dedicated.
“If you happen to’ve heard the testimony, we’re sustaining that there was no fraud right here … let’s see how the trial pans out. I imply, actually, it sounds to me, primarily based in your questions, that it’ll possible be a one-sided report … however … I believe that you probably have listened to the victims’ testimony and understood simply the place they have been coming from, I believe you’d possibly take a distinct view … our place is there was no fraud. And our cross-examination of the victims is just to elicit [that] definitely with a few of them, folks … took loans, defaulted a few months later, and acted the way in which they acted …”
Been burned left and proper
When Gaoussou Ouedraogo got here to the U.S. from Burkina Faso at age 25, he may converse French, Mandingo, Fulani, Arabic, and German, however his English was a bit tough. To strengthen it, he took grownup studying lessons, obtained a job washing automobiles, began making deliveries on bikes, and eventually saved up sufficient cash to take the take a look at and get a New York taxi driver’s license.
As a taxi driver, Ouedraogo was making extra money, however he was residing in a rental that his landlord refused to handle. An actual property dealer requested Ouedraogo why he saved renting as a substitute of shopping for a property. “I advised him, ‘No. I’m going again to Africa.’ He mentioned: ‘Don’t combine going again to Africa and shopping for property in America: It’s two various things. Purchase and stay in it. That’s higher for you.’”
When a household good friend, Patrice Sawadogo, additionally from Burkina Faso, got here to the U.S., Ouedraogo partnered with him to buy a property they might each stay in. Towards the tip of 2002, Sawadogo and Ouedraogo bought the two-family home at 729 Eldert Lane in Brooklyn. Since they each drove cabs, one within the daytime, the opposite at night time, they shared a unit and rented out the opposite. They made renovations to the basement earlier than transferring to the constructing and renting out the opposite residence.
The 2 managed to buy one other home on Dumont Avenue and a 3rd at 406 E. twenty first Road, however they ultimately began having points with tenants and fell behind on their mortgages.
Sawadogo’s spouse advised him about Solny after a neighbor talked about his providers to her.
“I don’t know what he advised my accomplice,” Ouedraogo advised the AmNews. “He mentioned my accomplice needed to signal the deed over to him for him to course of the brief sale.”
Sawadogo mentioned he was shocked when Ouedraogo referred to as to inform him 729 Eldert Lane was up on the market. “We have been seeking to have a brief sale,” Sawadogo mentioned in an interview. “After we arrived at [Solny’s] workplace, we have been requested to signal the papers. We didn’t know something about this difficulty. Later, we discovered when Gaoussou requested me if I had began promoting the home. I mentioned no, we have been over there for a brief sale.”
Through the court docket trial, Kousouros confused that regardless of the 2 collectively buying the property on Eldert Lane, solely Sawadogo’s identify appeared on each the deed and the mortgage. If Sawadogo transferred the deed to Solny, his lawyer appeared to indicate, it had no monetary impact on Ouedraogo.
Ouedraogo sees it otherwise and is awaiting justice on this case. Having Solny’s identify on the deeds for his or her properties at 729 Eldert Lane and 406 E. twenty first Road has damage their monetary reputations and brought away their houses. They’ve additionally every misplaced 1000’s in rental revenue.
“For me to belief anyone on that type of deal once more, it’s going to be some time, as a result of I’ve been burned left and proper for it, and the justice system just isn’t prevailing; the justice system just isn’t working in any respect,” mentioned Ouedraogo. “Let me put it this manner: If it was me as a Black man who did that crime, proper now I’m behind bars. There’s no excuse for why they’re not locking [Solny] up, no excuse that it’s taken them that lengthy.”
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