Disbarred legal professional Sanford Solny has lastly been sentenced for his crimes after being convicted in June of crimes that embrace possessing stolen property, three counts of first-degree scheme to defraud, and theft of 11 properties.
On November 12, Brooklyn Supreme Courtroom Justice Danny Chun sentenced Solny to 2 and a half to seven years in jail. The decide ordered the 11 stolen deeds he stole to be nullified, which ought to enable the householders to reclaim their properties. Nevertheless, he didn’t order Solny to return the almost $500,000 in hire he collected by stealing the houses.
Brooklyn District Lawyer Eric Gonzalez’s workplace acknowledged it might have beneficial a sentence of seven to 18 years in jail for Solny. “This defendant is a serial scammer who deserves each day he’ll now spend behind bars,” Gonzalez stated. “He stole helpful houses, in addition to the monetary stability and integrity of his victims, leaving many in monetary ruins. My workplace investigated, tried, and convicted this defendant, holding him accountable and returning the stolen deeds to their rightful homeowners.:”
From 2012 to 2022, Solny stole 11 properties in Bedford-Stuyvesant, East Flatbush, Canarsie, East New York, and Ocean Hill, primarily from Black and Brown householders dealing with foreclosures. Posing as a monetary adviser, he promised to assist the homeowners promote their houses for lower than what was owed on them, however as an alternative transferred possession to himself or his firms, and picked up hire for years. His victims misplaced their houses and fairness, and had their credit score destroyed due to unresolved foreclosures.
Neighborhood affect and courtroom drama
A member of the Folks’s Coalition to Cease Deed Theft, who requested to stay nameless, stated she and others had been shocked by the big turnout of Solny supporters on the courtroom. Brooklyn-based members of the Hasidic Jewish neighborhood packed the courtroom, together with supporters who traveled all the best way from Israel to indicate their help for the disgraced legal professional.
“It was stunning, truthfully, to be sitting there and listening to the opposite aspect say, ‘Oh, he’s a very good man. Oh, these aren’t essential victims; they knew what they had been doing.’ However on the similar time, saying, ‘Oh, this man was disbarred for doing predatory acts,’” the Coalition member advised the AmNews.
She was one of many few individuals in a position to enter the courtroom. Though the courtroom case was scheduled to begin after 2:30 p.m., Solny’s victims and supporters arrived at 1 p.m. to safe seats. So many individuals arrived for the listening to that greater than 20 courtroom officers got here out to dam the hallway outdoors the courtroom, citing overcrowding. They advised individuals who wished to be current for the courtroom’s determination to attend on the seventeenth flooring or outdoors, in entrance of the courthouse constructing.
“They first advised me I needed to go some place else, after which I went reside and began filming,” famous Imani Henry, founder and lead organizer of the police accountability, anti-gentrification, and anti-displacement group Equality for Flatbush (E4F). Henry was advised he might go to a different flooring or await the choice downstairs, however after he began filming, he stated somebody in authority clarified that extra ready areas had been out there. “I stated, ‘You’re telling me I can’t are available in? You’ve got all these police for this when it is a public occasion, a public courtroom. Why are you telling individuals they’ll’t are available in?’ After which they stated, ‘Oh, no, you’ll be able to come into the ready space.’”
Solny’s victims weren’t permitted to ship affect statements through the courtroom proceedings. As a substitute, if they’d their statements written down, the Brooklyn district legal professional’s workplace was allowed to learn them into the document.
When Solny made his personal assertion to the courtroom, he didn’t apologize to his victims. He thanked all his supporters who confirmed up, and thanked his spouse, associates, and the rabbis who got here, however didn’t point out the affect he had on his victims.
The broader disaster: deed theft in Brooklyn
E4F’s Henry defined that the fraud Solny dedicated is consistent with what many Black and Brown householders in New York Metropolis are experiencing. A 2025 Nationwide Affiliation of Realtors survey discovered that 92% of actual property brokers had been conscious of title or deed theft within the Northeast, making it the area most affected by one of these crime. In New York Metropolis, greater than 3,000 deed thefts had been reported between 2014 and 2019; 45% of these complaints had been in Brooklyn’s gentrifying neighborhoods.
As many neighborhoods within the 5 Boroughs gentrify, builders usually harass native householders who steadily don’t know learn how to reply. Organizations like E4F and the Folks’s Coalition to Cease Deed Theft have mobilized to help victims, increase consciousness, and demand accountability from metropolis officers and regulation enforcement.
“We’ve been working with householders coping with deed fraud, theft, and adjoining public property destruction since 2016,” Henry stated. “Primarily Black householders, and albeit, Black and Brown ladies householders, [although] white householders, too, have had predatory builders purchase property subsequent to them after which do all the pieces doable to destroy the infrastructure. The developer comes and paints one aspect of your brownstone black; places in a handrail with out permission; hoists particles, bathrooms, and bathtubs in entrance of your property; and extra. We’ve seen builders do all the pieces—from terrorizing kids to bringing a county sheriff to your door, saying, ‘You might want to promote to this particular person.’ We’ve needed to develop a listing of predatory legal professionals as a result of, once more, many legal professionals, notably these representing householders, are those serving to ship properties to builders.”
One of many first issues each house owner must know is whom to not flip to for assist. E4F’s record of predatory legal professionals labels attorneys who tenants, householders, small enterprise homeowners, and even different attorneys declare are untrustworthy and extra more likely to revenue from their purchasers’ lack of property.
The group asks householders who need assistance to contact them by way of e mail at b4g@equalityforflatbush.org or by cellphone at 646-820-6039.
