Parishioner Steals Brooklyn Church In Increasingly Prevalent Deed Scam, Say Prosecutors

In East New York, Brooklyn, The New York Daily News reports:

• A con-man parishioner stole his Brooklyn church and sold it to a developer in a deed scam that's become increasingly prevalent citywide, the Daily News has learned. The Free Mission Action Movement Church, founded in 1979, sits on four adjacent lots on Sutter Ave. in East New York. The $1 million property, church included, was stolen by Derrick Jones, 43, who easily managed to get the City Register to record forged deeds. He used two notaries public and one of the nation's biggest title companies to add touches of legitimacy to his scam.

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• Deed forgery to sell property or obtain fraudulent mortgages is sharply increasing, prosecutors in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens say. [...] "All you need is notarized signatures on a deed form," said Richard Farrell, a prosecutor in the Brooklyn district attorney's office who specializes in real estate fraud. "Once that deed is filed, you can obtain a mortgage on the property, you can rent it, you can sell it, whatever. There are hundreds of cases of deed fraud in the city every year."

For more, see Scammer stole his Brooklyn church.

See also:

• WCBS-TV Channel 2: Brooklyn Pastor May Lose His Church After Fraud (video only),
• Brooklyn Daily Eagle: Developer Sues in Brooklyn Supreme Court for Ownership of Swindled Church.

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