NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Two men and one of their corporation's pleaded guilty on Wednesday in a fraud scheme to steal residential properties in Queens and Nassau County by filing fake deeds with the city, the Queens District Attorney's Office said.
Russell Carbone, 69, and Terrell Hill, 40, pleaded guilty to scheme to defraud and six counts of offering a false instrument for filing, prosecutors said.
Carbone and Hill joined forces to identify homes where the owner had died and their heirs did not take the title of the home.
Hill, a landscaper, would tell Carbone, a disbarred attorney, about houses that looked abandoned, most of which had gone into foreclosure, the district attorney's office said.
RC Couture Realty Inc., a corporation run by Carbone and his wife, Galyna Carbone, 61, pleaded guilty to criminal possession of stolen property and six counts of offering a false instrument for filing, officials said.
The stolen Queens homes were located on 116th Road, 115th Avenue, 148th Street and 192nd Street in Jamaica; on 131st Avenue in Laurelton Gardens; and on 104th Avenue and 192nd Street in St. Albans.
In Nassau County, the stolen homes were on Pinebrook Avenue in West Hempstead and Advent Street in Westbury.
According to the charges and plea agreement, between Nov. 18, 2019 and Feb. 14, 2023, Carbone, of Far Rockaway, and Hill, of West Hempstead, forged signatures on property records to give themselves ownership.
Fraudulent notary stamps with the name of real notaries that Hill ordered from Amazon were used to notarize forged signatures, and Carbone's legitimate notary stamp was used on some documents. These papers were filed with the New York City Department of Finance.
An example of the con is the home on 116th Street in Jamaica. Hill called a Bronx woman in November 2019 about selling the house, which she inherited with her brother. After going to coffee with Carbone, Hill's "business partner," the woman declined the sale offer.
Regardless, on March 21, 2021, a deed transfer was filed placing 48% interest in the property with RC Couture Realty and Hill, each, and 1% interest in the property with both the victim and her sibling, prosecutors said.
The defendants had stamped the victims' names on the deed transfer documents with Carbone's notary stamp and a fraudulent notary stamp.
Hill's Amazon records show he ordered a stamp to his West Hempstead home with the name of a legitimate notary, who later told investigators that the stamp was not hers.
In some of the cases, the deeds were transferred among the defendants and their connected entities multiple times, creating 14 deeds for nine properties.
In two cases connected to the charged scheme to defraud, the defendants already agreed to return the deeds to the legitimate owners.
For the property at 148th Street in Jamaica, the defendants had already sold the home to a third party.
The district attorney's office will file a motion that will restore the deed to its rightful owner in an effort to cost the victim the time and expense of additional legal proceedings in civil court, officials said.
"When I started the Housing and Worker Protection Bureau three years ago, I promised to protect homeowners from predatory real estate scams that often target vulnerable neighborhoods," Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. "Since then, we have undone the criminal handiwork of scammers and con artists and pioneered the use of a state statute to return stolen properties to their rightful owners. With the conclusion of this prosecution, the largest we have undertaken so far, our office will have restored a total of 14 homes to their rightful owners."
Carbone lost his license as a notary, and will pay $56,960 in restitution in addition to forfeiting the illegally-obtained deeds.
The money comes from rent payments he collected when renting out the properties he overtook, and the restitution payments will go to the heirs of the legitimate property owners, prosecutors said.
Hill is expected to serve three years in prison when sentenced on Jan. 30, officials said.
R.C. Couture Realty will pay a $100,000 fine.
