BROOKLYN — Suspended lawyer Sanford Solny turned himself to face fraud charges in Brooklyn after the district attorney’s office said he stole the deeds for 8 homes worth a combined $8 million.
In an interview with PIX11, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez condemned the crimes Solny is alleged of.
“This is despicable,” Gonzalez said. “Stealing someone’s home is among the worst things you can ever do to a person.”
Gonzalez said Solny used “very complicated tricks to get the trust of unsuspecting homeowners.”
Solny allegedly convinced homeowners in danger of losing their homes into signing over their deeds to him.
The DA’s office said the homeowners thought Solny would help them negotiate a short sale, but instead, he kept the properties for himself, even collecting $600,000 in rent from tenants of those stolen properties since 2012.
“He would give the homeowner anywhere between $1,000 and $18,000 to transfer the house, they took incredible losses,” Gonzalez said.
The properties Solny is accused of stealing are located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Flatbush, East New York and Cypress Hills.
Solny entered a plea of not guilty in court. His attorney Michael Farkas said in an interview with PIX11, the new case in Brooklyn overlaps with a fraud case in Queens that Solny already resolved.
“We are really struggling to understand how any of the allegations are different from the first prosecution that he faced,” Farkas said.
