NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz charged an alleged family of fraudsters for a wide range of scams on Wednesday, including an audacious scheme to use a fake will to take a dead man's house.
Stephanie Bailey, 50, and her daughters Chianti Bailey, 31, and Latonya Bailey Dostaly, 45, face charges of grand larceny, forgery, perjury, identity theft, defrauding the government, official misconduct and more.
Latonya Bailey Dostaly is currently at large, and a Queens criminal court issued a warrant for her arrest.
Prosecutors accused Chianti Bailey of filing a fake will in Bronx Surrogate's Court claiming she was the heir to Russell Butler's Laurelton home in 2014 after his death in 2010.
After the court granted her ownership, Stephanie Bailey allegedly moved her family into the home and the defendants took out a $200,000 mortgage.
They also allegedly stole more than $100,000 from Butler's estate using the phony will.
Prosecutors also accused Stephanie Bailey of stealing almost $100,000 from the Section 8 housing program. She allegedly applied for assistance by listing a fictitious landlord for Butler's house and claiming she was a tenant there. The government sent about $90,000 to the fake landlord, which ended up in the Bailey's bank accounts, according to Katz.
All three used the stolen identities of more than 30 victims, including at least 20 children, to seek tax refunds in their name and take their COVID-19 relief checks, prosecutors said.
Latonya Bailey Dostaly worked at the New York City Human Resources Administration as a job opportunity specialist. Prosecutors say she used her position to steal the identities of applicants to the jobs program she worked for.
On top of everything else, the defendants are accused of making more than $200,000 worth of fraudulent unemployment claims in the names of nine different people.
"These defendants used virtually every trick in the book to pull off an assortment of illegal scams over more than a decade – including taking control of the $700,000-plus home of a longtime Laurelton resident who died in 2010," said Katz. "These defendants will now be held to account for their one-family crime spree."
If found guilty, each Bailey faces up to 52 years in prison.
