Disgraced attorney-turned-real property fraudster Sanford Solny is difficult his conviction. Final week, Solny’s authorized workforce filed a discover of attraction to the New York Appellate Division, concerning the decision in Folks v. Sanford Solny.
Solny was convicted in June 2025 of fees together with possession of stolen property, three counts of first-degree scheme to defraud, and theft of 11 properties. His sentence of solely 2.5 to 7 years in jail had appeared tragically lenient, on condition that he had disproportionately focused Black and Brown householders in Central Brooklyn and Queens.
From 2012 to 2022, Solny systematically stole 11 properties in neighborhoods akin to Bedford-Stuyvesant, East Flatbush, Canarsie, East New York, and Ocean Hill. Prosecutors stated he preyed on householders going through foreclosures, posing as a monetary adviser and promising to assist them promote their properties for lower than the quantity owed.
As a substitute, Solny transferred possession of the properties to himself or his firms, gathering hire for years whereas victims misplaced their properties and fairness, and had their credit score ruined by unresolved foreclosures.
On Nov. 12, 2025, Brooklyn Supreme Court docket Justice Danny Chun sentenced Solny to jail and ordered the nullification of the 11 stolen deeds. However Solny was not ordered to return the practically $500,000 in hire he collected from the stolen properties.
With their attraction utility, Solny’s attorneys now have 120 days to completely submit their attraction of his conviction. The Appellate Division’s determination, issued on Feb. 11, 2026, granted Solny a keep of his judgment, offered he posts substantial bail: an insurance coverage firm bond of $1.5 million, {a partially} secured bond of $2 million with 10% down, or a $300,000 money different. The court docket imposed strict situations, together with digital monitoring, residence confinement apart from important visits, give up of all passports, and a waiver of extradition rights ought to Solny depart the jurisdiction.
The keep will finish 120 days after the order, except the attraction is argued or submitted, or except the court docket extends the order. When it ends, Solny should give up to serve his sentence, and the order authorizes regulation enforcement to arrest him if vital.
Brooklyn District Legal professional Eric Gonzalez’s workplace defined, “He was ordered launched to residence confinement and ankle monitoring throughout the pendency of the attraction, if he posts a excessive bond. He’ll stay incarcerated for now on the Queens probation violation, so he’s not getting out but.” The DA’s workplace emphasised its dedication to the case, stating, “Stopping deed fraud is a precedence for our workplace, and that’s why we prosecuted this defendant and obtained the prolonged jail sentence he acquired. To make sure full accountability and justice for victims, we opposed the defendant’s launch to residence confinement throughout the pendency of his attraction.”
Gaoussou Ouedraogo, a home-owner who misplaced two properties to Solny’s schemes, advised the Amsterdam Information about his disbelief and frustration: “It was one thing fishy occurring as a result of even earlier than the [November] sentence, the choose was going to dismiss the case till the individuals stood up and went in opposition to it. It’s one thing fishy as a result of with the attraction system, they provide you 40 days to attraction, or…one month or two months to attraction the case should you disagree with the decision. So, once they convicted him in June, that’s when he ought to have appealed.”
Ouedraogo continued, “I’m suing anyone who’s on the case as a result of it’s fishy. Someone has to research this case. Even the restitution that they didn’t accumulate from him, they maintain that cash. It’s fishy. There’s one thing occurring.”
Members of the Folks’s Coalition to Cease Deed Theft have introduced plans to protest the continuing Solny case subsequent week. Evangeline Byars, a coalition chief, says her group remains to be finalizing particulars of the protest however will stay up to date on the Solny case.
Byars defined that her group has pushed to start monitoring circumstances like Solny’s by now working from throughout the Brooklyn District Legal professional’s workplace. She stated that throughout the subsequent few months, a Deed Theft Fraud (DTF) workforce needs to be arrange throughout the Brooklyn District Legal professional’s Actual Property Fraud Unit, modeled after the home violence unit at Secure Horizons. The thought is that DTF victims have a spot they’ll stroll into to report that their property has been stolen.
A supply throughout the DA’s workplace confirmed that they’re hiring extra prosecutors and paralegals to type the DTF unit, and that also they are in search of funding to do extra. However with the town going through a multi-billion-dollar deficit, it’s a troublesome time to be asking for extra funding. At the moment, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn DA advised the Amsterdam Information, “Individuals who want to make [deed theft] complaints ought to name the DA’s Motion Middle at 718-250-2340.”
“The way in which it’s been previously is should you name the police and say any person stole your deed or stole your own home or no matter, they don’t take the report,” Byars famous. “They let you know you [you’ve] obtained to go to the sheriff. You’ve obtained to go to the Supreme Court docket. You’ve obtained to go elsewhere. However they don’t take these experiences. It’s a civil matter. And so this now could be forcing them, in the event that they don’t take it, to report it to the DA’s workplace, after which they’ve to research and prosecute.”
She added, “They’re placing it collectively. We’re placing it collectively now. It’s not 100% prepared as a result of we’re coaching on each side; they need to know what we all know, and now we have to know what they know. One of many issues revealed within the assembly between the DA and the coalition was that the DA actually didn’t perceive DTF. He didn’t know what was occurring the way in which we skilled it. He didn’t know they had been bodily getting into and dragging individuals out of their properties. They had been pondering, ‘Oh, you signed some paperwork, and that’s it.’ They didn’t know that individuals had been being dragged out of their homes and that they couldn’t come again: that the police had been escorting them there. So this was new info for them. After which having the ability to see it in actual time on our social media actually made the distinction.”
