Man Arrested For Allegedly Stealing 2 Harlem Brownstone Homes
Joseph Makhani, a 60-year-old man from Kings Point, Long Island, who has a long history of criminal activity, has been indicted for the second time for stealing two brownstone houses in Harlem, New York.
According to the New York Attorney General, Lettiia James, Makhani is accused of stealing properties located at 107 West 118th Street and 135 West 131st Street. The state officials allege that he used forged documents and shell companies to conceal his crimes.
During his arraignment in Manhattan, Makhani pleaded not guilty to two counts of criminal possession of stolen property and one count of scheme to defraud.
The stolen property on West 118th Street was falsely reported to have been purchased by Makhani for $975,000, and he obtained a $650,000 construction loan for renovations. Later, he refinanced and received a $1.2 million mortgage on the property. As a result, the previous resident of the property ended up in a homeless shelter, while Makhani rented out four units as market-rate rentals between 2016 and 2023.
Regarding the 131st Street property, the last recorded deed was from 1975, in the name of an elderly owner who passed away soon after. When the management was transferred to a beneficiary who also passed away in 2010, Makhani took advantage of the situation.
In 2012, Makhani deceived a building tenant by claiming he had purchased the brownstone and obtained the tenant’s signature under the pretense of offering him a job. This forged signature was used to file a new deed, showing the tenant as the owner of the building. Eventually, the deed was transferred to a company called One 35 West Corp., which Makhani controlled. He further filed another deed to show that the initial owner had transferred the property to him, even using a Social Security number from a person born in 1902.
Makhani’s previous criminal history includes being indicted in 2012 on seven counts, which included criminal possession of stolen property and residential mortgage fraud. He was also fined $1 million by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) in 2013 for failing to maintain the brownstone, which was later foreclosed on after he abandoned it.
With a rap sheet of real estate crimes dating back to the 1990s, Makhani has a history of legal troubles, including spending two years in prison after pleading guilty in 1998 to bid-rigging foreclosed properties in Queens and submitting a false tax return. Additionally, in 2008, three companies he allegedly owned pleaded guilty to forging signatures on deeds filed through the city’s Department of Finance.
If convicted, Makhani could face up to 25 years in state prison, according to James. Due to the difficulty in proving deed theft when victims are deceived into signing legal documents, James has proposed a law to make the prosecution of deed theft easier.
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