Crown Heights, NY – A ambitious Brooklyn developer was found guilty of stealing more than $18 million from dozens of Hasidic families and several banks in a massive subprime mortgage scam.
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Eliyahu Ezagui, 39, preyed on his fellow congregants, sold them condominiums but never gave them the deeds when construction was finished.
Instead, he gave the deeds to family members – including his wife, father and mother. He then used the deeds to take out mortgages on 53 apartments he didn’t own and pocketed the money.
The verdict came after a two week Brooklyn federal court trial, the culmination of case that directly resulted from an investigation by The Daily News two years ago.
Ezagui, who declined comment, is facing more than 12 years in prison with his mail fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy conviction.
Robert Tolchin, lawyer for many of the defrauded condo buyers said: “The verdict is only bittersweet and my clients are saddened that things came to this, and that Mr. Ezagui apparently got himself in so deep, he stopped being honest.”
Because Ezagui didn’t make payments on the illicit mortgages to lending banks, the condo owners are facing foreclosure proceedings and eviction in a separate civil court proceeding.
“Now that the fraud has been established, I expect that the (civil) court will recognize the mortgages as fraudulent and cancel them,” said Tolchin.
The death penalty that was carried out in Florida yesterday was for a crime that had one real victim, aside from a few secondary victims. This one involves many victims who face homelessness, and there is hardly any possibility of restitution. Numerous attempts to address this in Beis Din were rejected, and it is “bittersweet” that the goyishe court found him guilty. Now what? Who will prevent the evictions and who will hold this guy responsible?
If banks accept 10 cents on the dollar when negotiating a loan these days, I suspect that the owners who for now only lost their down-payment, will be able to negotiate and settle the fraudulent mortgages with a minor settlement.
Now before all you smart heads start commenting on this let me tell you this is one case you shouldn’t even hold an opinion on until you thoroughly researched the case and not just from court documents as I’ve experienced first hand how they pick and choose which evidence to allow be presented and which not
I am one of those victims – and to make a long story short. everybody is guilty and they are just making him a korbon
kocho yeiose loish asher goineiv es beis chavaroiv
I guess the Rebbe didn’t tell him he will be going to jail if he did this crime the rebbe only told him to do the crime
Okay, he’s guilty – so let’s get the inevitable pidyon sh’vuyim campaign on the road.
Is this animal the ones who owns the Furniture Store?
I don’t understand-where were the lawyers who were involved in this to make sure title would be granted to the buyers and that the loans were properly paid off to the banks? Isn’t that part of what attorneys do during a closing?
Read the verdict: Ezagui was convicted of mortgage fraud. Not of investor fraud. Whether or not Ezagui sold the units to the investors is the matter of a legitimate civil dispute that has gone on for some time. If it was so clear cut that Ezagui took mortgages on other people units, the civil case would have ended a long time ago. Read what Tolchin says “now that the fraud has been established, I expect that the (civil) court will recognize the mortgages as fraudulent and cancel them”. Do you now see the motive behind the criminal case brought on Ezagui? It was brought by Tolchin to further the civil case. Those who testified against him in court, did so to help their civil case. What an abuse of our federal system.
Elie Ezagui was attepmting to payoff the mortgages. The Market collapsed and he could not keep up. He and his family have no money and now he can not support them or pay any debts towards the mortgages.
Their are no funds stashed away.
He was trying to keep things floating but he could not keep up with the falling market
The attorney who pushed the civil case and the criminal case is laughing all the way to the Bank. He charged the owners $25,000.00 to get a deed for their units.
Big deal. The deeds are all incumbered by mortgages.
If you realy want answeres ask who pushed for the criminal prosecution and why? And who recieved immunity for helping the government to prosecute Ezagui.
Their is no gold at the end of the rainbow. His acts may have been foolish but he did not walk away with money. only debts. He was trying to dig out of the hole for himself and for the unit owners.
Hashem should bless him and his family and the unit owners for a speedy recovery B’gashmius and B’ruchnius.
Dont forget his son is a hero who fought for the Jewish People and lost his arm as a soldier in the IDF.
Ezagui did not ‘steal’ the deeds!
He offered some of the condos at a discount in exchange for his temporarily holding the rights to the deeds to profit from them (by investing what he can get from mortgaging them) in exchange for the huge discount as expressed at the time of sale, in contrast to those deeds he turned over at the time of sale to buyers who paid full price.
Never was it supposed that the deeds in his possession were any more than only his temporarily as agreed to at the time of the sale, the rights to the deed having been sold to the buyers.
It is supposed that several buyers were not clear on the condition of sale, or wanted to go back on their agreement, and in the process got Ezagui’s assets frozen by the gvmt, and he therefore was unable to continue the simple business deal that was agreed to, and has since been fighting a court battle.
Even if he wanted to transfer the deeds, once his assets were frozen, it became impossible. Therefore the remorseful buyers have not only run a business man through the mud for not understanding or liking what they agreed to, but have ruined their chances of getting their deed back without financial leveraging against it.