NEW YORK — A Long Island man was indicted after obtaining nearly $1 million from two New York City homes he fraudulently sold, one of which used to be the home of the man convicted of baby kidnapping. by Charles Lindbergh.
Salomé Vega was charged with two counts of grand theft after transferring titles to properties in the Bronx and Brooklyn through a variety of false documents, and even having another person impersonate a deceased owner, according to the district attorney. from Brooklyn, Eric González.
An investigation revealed that Vega, 46, of Hempstead, sold the title to a two-family home on East 222nd Street in the Bronx on Aug. 6, 2019, Gonzalez said. At the time of the closing, which took place at an office in Midwood, Brooklyn, she allegedly had someone pose as the homeowner, who had actually died.
Vega sold the house to a buyer for $250,000. It’s the same house where Bruno Richard Hauptmann, who kidnapped Charles Lindbergh Jr. ninety years ago in a case that captivated the nation and the world, once resided, the district attorney said.
Less than a week later, Vega allegedly opened a business checking account in the same name as the deceased owner and deposited a check for $242,828 from the sale. Over the next two months, the district attorney said Vega emptied the newly formed account.
The deed transfer was later voided by the Bronx County Public Administrator after it was discovered that the owner of the East 222nd Street home had died in April 2019, about four months before the fraudulent closing, according to the investigation.
The investigation also revealed that Vega sold another two-family home, this time on Autumn Avenue in the East New York section of Brooklyn, in February 2023, the prosecutor alleged. That home sold for $675,000 after he posed as the CEO of Merit Homes Inc., which owns the property.
At the time of closing, Vega allegedly requested that the funds from the sale be payable to him personally in amounts of $100,000, $200,000, $300,000 and $33,772, respectively. He then collected those payments at several check cashing stores in Queens and Long Island.
In total, the homes sold for a combined $925,000, according to Gonzalez.
In addition to being charged with deed fraud, Vega also attempted to steal nearly $300,000 in COVID-19 tax relief payments by opening a business account for a surveillance company that didn’t exist, the district attorney’s office said.
“This defendant allegedly lined his pockets with ill-gotten gains from two separate real estate transactions in which he stole (and then sold) the titles to two New York City properties and at the same time attempted to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars in COVID-19 taxes. relief funds,” said prosecutor González.
Vega’s attorney information was not immediately available. His next court appearance is scheduled for December 6.
2023-10-14 04:01:08
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