NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Two men were charged on Monday for attempting to steal a deceased homeowner's Queens home by forging her death certificate and pretending to be her son, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.
Jorge Vasquez Jr., 40, and Andy V. Singh, 34, – as well as "23-41 100th Street Corp" – have been indicted for allegedly filing fake paperwork to claim ownership of an East Elmhurst, Queens home.
Both are accused of impersonating the deceased homeowner, as well as her son, the rightful owner of the home, in order to unlawfully access the payoff information of the mortgage. They then used this information to complete the sale of the property.
In order to sell the home, they submitted several fake documents to the title company, including a death certificate for the deceased property owner and affidavits of heirship confirming the seller as the sole heir. This all occurred without the knowledge or consent of the deceased homeowner's son, the rightful owner of the property.
"As alleged, these defendants conspired to steal a home left behind by a deceased homeowner and proceeded to sell the property to a sham corporation for more than half a million dollars," Katz said.
The property owner passed away in 2019 and left the house to her biological son, the victim, according to charges. In October 2021, the victim noticed an email from his mother's mortgage company that confirmed a change in contact information on the loan, including an email address that he did not recognize.
He then contacted the mortgage company to ask about the unauthorized change in information, the mortgage holder informed the victim that the mortgage had been paid off on October 4, 2021. The victim went to visit the house and saw workers doing construction.
He took immediate action and contacted the District Attorney's Office, who began an investigation. In November 2021, a fraudulent deed was filed with the New York City Register, which claimed the property had been sold for $530,000 by Jorge Vasquez Jr. "as sole heir" of the deceased property owner, to 23-41 100th Street Corp., for which Andy V. Singh is the sole shareholder and chairman.
Both defendants were charged with grand larceny, identity theft, falsifying business records in the first degree, criminal possession of a forged instrument, criminal possession of the stolen property, offering a false instrument for filing, and conspiracy.
If convicted, the two men each face up to 15 years in prison.
