An apparent swindle centering on ownership of a home in Harlem has resulted in charges against three people who allegedly stole a property deed from an individual who owned the house for nearly 40 years. Last week, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced indictments in a deed theft and mortgage fraud case that revolved around a Harlem brownstone. The defendants — Angela Jazmin Ramos Malpica, 35; Yuan Kuei Li, 41; and Abdur Rahman, 34 — are accused of taking possession of a property they did not own. They allegedly targeted the family of Okryun Marrero, who had purchased the multifamily home at 267 West 131st Street in 1986.
Marrero died in 2018 and left her home to her husband, children, and grandchildren. But Angela Ramos came forward to claim that she was Marrero’s heir. She signed a deed to claim ownership of the property and then allegedly forged signatures and placed the personal information of true Marrero heirs on other documents, so that she could sell and transfer the title to the home.
With the paperwork in, Ramos sold the house to Yuan Kuei Li for $950,000 on April 25, 2024. That same day, Li allegedly sold it to Abdur Rahman and his company, Great Neck Acquisitions, for $1.5 million.
The paperwork hid the fact that neither Rahman nor Great Neck Acquisitions ever paid Li for the property, and Li never actually received the $950,000 to acquire the building. The defendants all allegedly used the deed for 267 West 131st Street as collateral to secure a mortgage and construction loan totaling $1,636,000.
“During a time when housing is scarce,” D.A. Bragg said in a statement, “I will not stand for fraudsters coming to Harlem to try and perpetrate these pernicious schemes. This type of alleged conduct preys on longtime New Yorkers, and we will prosecute those who take advantage of homeowners.”
D.A. Bragg said that he wants Ramos, Li, and Rahman to be held accountable: they each face charges related to mortgage fraud and identity theft. But he also wants to see Okryun Marrero’s rightful heirs regain their property.
But, as with other recent cases involving Black New Yorkers whose property has been stolen, 267 West 131st Street is currently still listed as owned by Great Neck Acquisitions. The building’s true owners will have to keep the pressure on to get their property back.
Solny conviction highlights systemic gaps
Carmela Charrington, whose family has been a victim of deed theft, recently helped establish the People’s Coalition to Stop Deed Theft. She says many in her group have become suspicious of government officials who are supposed to assist victims but often seem unable to help them recover their homes. “We have no way to seek justice,” Charrington told AmNews. “When we go to the police or district attorney, we get no relief.”
The situation involving the disbarred attorney Sanford Solny highlights this issue. On June 5, Solny, 68, was convicted of stealing the deeds to 11 residential properties in Brooklyn. Following a bench trial before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny K. Chun, Solny was found guilty of 13 counts of third-degree criminal possession of stolen property, three counts of first-degree scheme to defraud, and one count of third-degree grand larceny.
Solny, who had previously pleaded guilty to felony possession of stolen property in Queens in 2018 and was on probation, was taken into custody last week following a probation hearing. He will remain incarcerated until his upcoming October 22 sentencing in Brooklyn, where he faces additional jail time.
But even after Solny’s conviction, two of his victims — Patrice and Wendy Sawadogo — are still fighting to reclaim their homes. Solny had stolen two properties from them, both supposedly under legal hold, yet one was still unlawfully sold.
In a statement, the Sawadogos said they were “assured that our homes would be returned following Solny’s prosecution. Instead, we were stunned to learn that our property at 406 East 21st Street, Brooklyn, NY 11226 was sold for approximately $1,000,000, despite being under a court-ordered legal hold. The status of our second property, 729 Eldert Lane, Brooklyn, NY 11208, remains unknown. For more than 14 years, Sanford Solny unlawfully controlled our properties, collected rent, and deprived us of ownership. Now, as victims finally await justice, our property has been sold out from under us, and we are being served eviction notices to vacate our own homes.”
Rachel Cyprien, an organizer with the Black Homeowners Preservation Coalition (BHPC), a grassroots alliance fighting to stop deed theft and end the systemic erasure of Black generational wealth, says she is also deeply frustrated with the system.
“What I feel is that there are several Sanford Solnys out there,” Cyprien said. “And the Black community, specifically, is being harmed…
“I understood what this man was doing — stealing homes. He was stealing people’s homes, and people acted like he was taking insignificant little somethings. But we’re talking about people’s homes — sanctuaries where they sleep, where their families gather. They are homes. Homes. And the way he was treated with such kid gloves boggles my mind. It hurts me to my core. It made me really angry. He took 50 adjournments before he was finally arrested, and he should have been caught a long time ago.”
I have been following Solny’s case in depth. The sellers knowingly sold the deeds of their underwater properties. Most of them lied on their mortgage applications (Federal crime) fabricating their income in order to procure mortgages of 100% financing and did not have to put down any money, then immediately defaulted on their mortgages, not even making one payment. They collected rent and tried modifications and short sales that were denied. In order to squeeze even more money out of properties they were losing, they sold their deeds to Solny for 10k-30k, right before foreclosure. Years later, after seeing that Solny was still able to hold on to the properties due to his experience in foreclosure defense (FYI he was only disbarred due to this fabricated case), they had sellers remorse and falsely claimed they did not know what they were signing!! However, they all admitted to signing and their signatures were notarized. Outright sales where they begged Solny to buy their deeds. They have no morals to fabricate lies against a benevolent man who helped them, in order to benefit themselves.
Remarkably, many testified that the DA came to them and informed them that they were defrauded and urged them to come testify with a promise of their deed back and tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution!!!
Sadly, the DA is not acting to carry out justice, but to try to promote themselves and publicize how they are protecting minority New Yorkers from deed fraud. But this is not deed fraud!!
Sawadogo is crying about his house that was sold- it was sold by the Bank because he didn’t pay his mortgages for over 17 years!! and lived there rent free for all that time. He is constantly taking advantage and then crying victim.
I also cannot believe this paper is taking Statements from Rachel Cyprien. She is an emotionally disturbed woman who spends her days screaming, yelling and harassing anyone who is not black. She yells in the courthouse in middle of court proceedings and was barred from entering the courtrooms. She belongs in a mental institution.
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