WHAT A HEEL: You Can’t Sell What You Don’t Own
The Queens (NY) District Attorney's Office alleges that John D'Emic, chief deputy county clerk for Brooklyn Supreme Court, was involved in a $1.4 million mortgage scam with eight others who allegedly used fake IDs to secure mortgages and pretended to be buyers to sell three houses in the borough that they did not own, reports
According to, the investigation that led to the arrest of D'Emic and began in November 2007, when 74-year-old Dorothy Thomas came to the office's Elder Fraud Unit to report that her home had been sold without her knowledge.
Thomas learned of the sale after receiving mail and foreclosure notices addressed to "Tolessi Enyonam," the property's new purported owner. …
A Brooklyn-based solo practitioner at the time the crimes were committed, D'Emic faces up to four years in prison if convicted on 11 counts of falsifying business records and one charge of prohibited sharing of compensation by attorneys. Upon his indictment, the Office of Court Administration suspended him without pay.
D'Emic's attorney claims his client was unaware the sales were fraudulent, making him as much a victim as the banks, the actual homeowners and the two people whose identities were stolen to obtain mortgages.
Comments