Kings Point man found guilty of stealing two Harlem brownstones worth $4.7M
Prosecutors said Joseph Makhani used fake deeds, forged documents and shell companies to take control of the properties. In one case, an elderly homeowner was forced into a homeless shelter, despite being the rightful owner of a brownstone valued at nearly $3 million.
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A Kings Point man was convicted Wednesday of stealing two Harlem brownstones worth nearly $5 million through a long-running real estate fraud scheme, Attorney General Letitia James announced.
Joseph Makhani was found guilty of two counts of criminal possession of stolen property and one count of scheme to defraud.
Prosecutors said Makhani used fake deeds, forged documents and shell companies to take control of the properties. In one case, an elderly homeowner was forced into a homeless shelter, despite being the rightful owner of a brownstone valued at nearly $3 million.
Authorities said Makhani falsely claimed he purchased the first property, on West 118th Street, for $10. He later said on a mortgage application he paid $975,000 for the building and used that to secure a $650,000 construction loan.
He collected more than $12,000 a month in rent from 2016 through 2023 without providing any proceeds to the true owner.
The property was valued at about $2.9 million in 2023.
Prosecutors said Makhani acquired a second brownstone on West 131st Street using another fraudulent deed scheme. He allegedly obtained a tenant's signature under the guise of him being the new owner and offering the man a job. He then filed a fraudulent deed using that signature to say that the owner of the building transferred the property to a company he controlled.
He later tried to evict tenants and filed a lawsuit against them, but questions arose about the legitimacy of his ownership claim emerged during eviction proceedings.
The property was valued at about $1.8 million.
Makhani faces a maximum sentence of 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison on the top charge.
