Lawyer Is Indicted for Stealing Building From Elderly Woman

Lawyer Is Indicted for Stealing Building From Elderly Woman
The New York Law Journal by Brendan Pierson  -  May 3, 2012

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have indicted a Brooklyn lawyer and his employee who allegedly swindled an elderly woman out of a multi-million dollar Washington Heights property.  The attorney, Ifeanyichukwu Eric Abakporo, and his employee, Latanya Pierce, allegedly befriended the owner of a large apartment building on St. Nicholas Avenue and 163rd Street in early 2006. The pair earned her trust by, among other things, offering to help manage the property, according to the newly unsealed indictment from the Southern District U.S. Attorney's office.  The indictment identifies the woman as Victim-1. The Daily News identifies her as Ina McCarther, 80, a wheelchair-bound retired teacher.  It states that Abakporo and Pierce collected rent from McCarther's tenants, but pocketed it for themselves. Later, they persuaded her to sell the 37-unit, block-long property to them for $3.1 million, according to the indictment.  At the closing, they allegedly presented her with multiple fraudulent checks for the property. After her attorney left the closing, they persuaded her to give the checks back to them for safekeeping, and said they would give her a "private mortgage" on the property, under which they would pay her in monthly installments for the money she had effectively loaned them, the indictment says.  The two presented McCarther with a document attesting to this mortgage, according to the indictment, but never registered it. Instead, they obtained a $1.8 million mortgage for themselves from Washington Mutual by representing that they had bought the property outright and owned it free and clear. They never paid back that mortgage, and the building went into default, according to the indictment.  Abakporo and Pierce have been charged with wire fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, and bank fraud conspiracy. The wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy charges each carry a maximum prison term of 20 years, and the bank fraud and bank fraud conspiracy charges each carry a maximum prison term of 30 years.  Abakporo, 52, is a Nigerian citizen who lives in Queens, and Pierce, 43, lives in Brooklyn, according to a news release from the Southern District prosecutors.  Abakporo is being held and may be released if he posts a $1 million bail bond secured by property and co-signed by three people. Pierce has been released on $500,000 bail, co-signed by three people and secured by property.  "As alleged, these two defendants preyed on an elderly woman, using false documents and fraudulent representations to essentially steal her property out from under her," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said yesterday in a news release. "They then allegedly took their brazen scheme one step further, using the property to deceive a bank into lending them more than a million dollars. Sadly, this type of mortgage fraud scheme and exploitation of vulnerable victims have become all too familiar, but as these charges make clear, we are committed to bringing those who perpetrate these types of harmful schemes to justice."  The complex fraud unit of the U.S. Attorney's office investigated the matter in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York Attorney General's Office.  The case is United States v. Abakporo, 1:12-cr-00340.  Brendan Pierson can be contacted at bpierson@alm.com.