Disgraced attorney-turned-real estate fraudster Sanford Solny is challenging his conviction. Last week, Solny’s legal team filed a notice of appeal to the New York Appellate Division, regarding the verdict in People v. Sanford Solny.
Solny was convicted in June 2025 of charges including possession of stolen property, three counts of first-degree scheme to defraud, and theft of 11 properties. His sentence of only 2.5 to 7 years in prison had appeared tragically lenient, given that he had disproportionately targeted Black and Brown homeowners in Central Brooklyn and Queens.
From 2012 to 2022, Solny systematically stole 11 properties in neighborhoods such as Bedford-Stuyvesant, East Flatbush, Canarsie, East New York, and Ocean Hill. Prosecutors said he preyed on homeowners facing foreclosure, posing as a financial adviser and promising to help them sell their homes for less than the amount owed.
Instead, Solny transferred ownership of the homes to himself or his companies, collecting rent for years while victims lost their homes and equity, and had their credit ruined by unresolved foreclosures.
On Nov. 12, 2025, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun sentenced Solny to prison and ordered the nullification of the 11 stolen deeds. But Solny was not ordered to return the nearly $500,000 in rent he collected from the stolen homes.
With their appeal application, Solny’s attorneys now have 120 days to fully submit their appeal of his conviction. The Appellate Division’s decision, issued on Feb. 11, 2026, granted Solny a stay of his judgment, provided he posts substantial bail: an insurance company bond of $1.5 million, a partially secured bond of $2 million with 10% down, or a $300,000 cash alternative. The court imposed strict conditions, including electronic monitoring, home confinement except for essential visits, surrender of all passports, and a waiver of extradition rights should Solny leave the jurisdiction.
The stay will end 120 days after the order, unless the appeal is argued or submitted, or unless the court extends the order. When it ends, Solny must surrender to serve his sentence, and the order authorizes law enforcement to arrest him if necessary.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s office explained, “He was ordered released to home confinement and ankle monitoring during the pendency of the appeal, if he posts a high bond. He will remain incarcerated for now on the Queens probation violation, so he’s not getting out yet.” The DA’s office emphasized its commitment to the case, stating, “Stopping deed fraud is a priority for our office, and that’s why we prosecuted this defendant and obtained the lengthy prison sentence he received. To ensure full accountability and justice for victims, we opposed the defendant’s release to home confinement during the pendency of his appeal.”
Gaoussou Ouedraogo, a homeowner who lost two properties to Solny’s schemes, told the Amsterdam News about his disbelief and frustration: “It was something fishy going on because even before the [November] sentence, the judge was going to dismiss the case until the people stood up and went against it. It’s something fishy because with the appeal system, they give you 40 days to appeal, or…one month or two months to appeal the case if you disagree with the verdict. So, when they convicted him in June, that’s when he should have appealed.”
Ouedraogo continued, “I’m suing anybody who is on the case because it’s fishy. Somebody has to investigate this case. Even the restitution that they didn’t collect from him, they keep that money. It’s fishy. There’s something going on.”
Members of the People’s Coalition to Stop Deed Theft have announced plans to protest the ongoing Solny case next week. Evangeline Byars, a coalition leader, says her group is still finalizing details of the protest but will remain updated on the Solny case.
Byars explained that her organization has pushed to begin monitoring cases like Solny’s by now working from within the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office. She said that within the next few months, a Deed Theft Fraud (DTF) team should be set up within the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Real Estate Fraud Unit, modeled after the domestic violence unit at Safe Horizons. The idea is that DTF victims have a place they can walk into to report that their property has been stolen.
A source within the DA’s office confirmed that they are hiring more prosecutors and paralegals to form the DTF unit, and that they are also seeking funding to do more. But with the city facing a multi-billion-dollar deficit, it’s a tough time to be asking for more funding. Currently, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn DA told the Amsterdam News, “People who wish to make [deed theft] complaints should call the DA’s Action Center at 718-250-2340.”
“The way it’s been in the past is if you call the police and say somebody stole your deed or stole your house or whatever, they don’t take the report,” Byars noted. “They tell you you [you’ve] got to go to the sheriff. You’ve got to go to the Supreme Court. You’ve got to go somewhere else. But they don’t take those reports. It’s a civil matter. And so this now is forcing them, if they don’t take it, to report it to the DA’s office, and then they have to investigate and prosecute.”
She added, “They’re putting it together. We’re putting it together now. It’s not 100% ready because we’re training on both sides; they have to know what we know, and we have to know what they know. One of the things revealed in the meeting between the DA and the coalition was that the DA really didn’t understand DTF. He didn’t know what was happening the way we experienced it. He didn’t know they were physically going in and dragging people out of their homes. They were thinking, ‘Oh, you signed some paperwork, and that’s it.’ They didn’t know that people were being dragged out of their houses and that they couldn’t come back: that the police were escorting them there. So this was new information for them. And then being able to see it in real time on our social media really made the difference.”
He paid more then these houses were worth factoring the mortgages and everything was signed and notarized. There was no scheme here and the crooked DAs and Judges put an innocent guy away because of his hat. Hopefully the appeal court will see the truth and free the man. If mob justice and hate rule, your ethnic group may be the next victim.