A Brooklyn, N.Y., man pleaded guilty to grand larceny for a deed fraud scheme in connection with two properties, one in Bedford-Stuyvesant, N.Y., and the other in Bushwick, N.Y. He committed mortgage fraud related to a third property in Park Slope, N.Y. In total, the defendant stole about $775,000 using shell corporations to file fraudulent deeds and mortgage documents.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez identified the defendant as Derrick Johnson, A.K.A. Jay Rendell, 60, of Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. He pleaded guilty before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Laura Johnson to an indictment charging him with five counts of second-degree grand larceny. The defendant faces a prison term of three to nine years when he is sentenced on Aug. 30.
Additionally, the defendant pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted criminal possession of a weapon on Jan. 6 and was supposed to be sentenced on May 8, but failed to appear and a bench warrant was issued. He was subsequently arrested in Georgia and returned to New York, where he was indicted for and pleaded guilty to bail jumping. He will be sentenced to five years in prison on the gun case and one year on the bail jumping case.
He will be sentenced in all three cases on Aug. 30. All three sentences will run concurrently.
Gonzalez said that the investigation shows that on Nov. 25, 2020, the defendant fraudulently obtained a mortgage on an apartment building at 349 17th Street in Park Slope by using fake documents to induce a commercial lender to issue him a mortgage of $337,825, which he stole.
Furthermore, according to the investigation, from June 10, 2021, through June 24, 2021, the defendant, acting with an indicted alleged accomplice, fraudulently transferred title to 1517 Broadway in Bushwick to a shell corporation and induced a different commercial lender to issue them a mortgage of $107,607. They allegedly divided the proceeds, with Johnson stealing $50,000 and the remainder allegedly going to his co-defendant.
The following month, from July 1, 2021, through July 29, 2021, Johnson fraudulently transferred title to an apartment building at 323 Malcom X Boulevard in Bedford-Stuyvesant to a shell corporation that he controlled and induced a third commercial lender to issue his corporation a mortgage of $329,332, which Johnson also stole.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Richard Farrell, chief of the District Attorney’s Real Estate Fraud Unit, and Senior Assistant District Attorney Frank Ungerer of the District Attorney’s Frauds Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Gregory Pavlides, chief of the Frauds Bureau, and the overall supervision of Michel Spanakos, deputy chief of the District Attorney’s Investigations Division, and Patricia McNeill, Chief of Investigations.