False son took away a widow’s house: sentenced to prison in New York – El Diario NY

Christopher Williams sentenced to prison after admitting burglarizing elderly widow’s home a Queens (NYC) posing as his son and then selling the property for $270,000.

Williams, a 43-year-old Brooklyn resident, used in 2021 fake birth and death certificates to convince the New York City Department of Finance that he was the son of his victim, Barbara Matthews, the Queens district attorney’s office reported.

After claiming the property on Dunlop Avenue in the Jamaica neighborhood, he sold it for $270,000 and kept most of that money. After being discovered pleaded guilty in August of identity theft and offering a false statement to file it, he said New York Post.

“We will not allow criminals to conspire and defraud to take other people’s property, and we will use every tool available to ensure that victims are compensated,” said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz. it’s a statement.

Williams was sentenced on Tuesday the 21st to between two and four years behind bars. Queens Supreme Court Justice Leigh Cheng also granted a motion by the prosecutor’s office to apply a state law that immediately returns stolen property to its rightful ownersaving victim Matthews the time and expense of the legal process.

“In the communities targeted by deed scammers, many people do not have the means to hire a lawyer to file a civil suit and litigate against deep-pocketed mortgage companies, banks and title insurers,” Katz said.

In a similar case, this month a woman was arrested in The Bronx (NYC) for allegedly robbing the home of a dead man who had the same name as his also-deceased father, then selling the property and squandering the funds on jewelry and a luxury car.

In September, a woman was arrested on suspicion of using credit cards from the company she worked for to pay herself more than $350,000 over the course of two years in Long Island (NY).

In April Nicole D. Federici, a resident of The Bronx (NYC), was arrested at a bank in Connecticut on suspicion of trying to obtain a check worth $38,510.62 and another $5,000 in cash. using a stolen credit card.

Also this year Charlie Javice (31), founder of the university financial planning platform Frank, was arrested and accused of defrauding JPMorgan Chase for $175 million dollars In New York.