A former mortgage bank branch manager from Queens, N.Y., has been convicted and found guilty of multiple offences in connection to an extensive deed theft operation that stole the homes of vulnerable New Yorkers.
On May 9, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the conviction against defendant Stacie Saunders, who had been found guilty of taking part in a deed theft ring that fraudulently sold three homes without the knowledge and permission of the rightful property owners, yielding more than $1 million from the sale proceeds.
The charges Saunders was convicted on included:
- Three counts of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a class C felony;
- Two counts of Attempted Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a class D felony;
- One count of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, a class E felony;
- Five counts of Money Laundering in the Second Degree, a class C felony;
- Two counts of Forgery in the Second Degree, a class D felony;
- Three counts of Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, a class E felony; and
- Two counts of Conspiracy in the Fourth Degree, a class E felony.
The maximum sentence on the first count is five to 15 years in prison, with the possibility of consecutive sentences. Saunders will be sentenced on June 11 by Judge Leigh Cheng.
Saunders is the final defendant to be convicted in the Office of the Attorney General’s (OAG) investigation into the Queens deed theft ring. All five defendants charged by OAG have since been convicted.
According to court documents, Saunders, a formerly licensed real estate salesperson, was involved in a deed theft ring that stole three homes in Jamaica and St. Albans, Queens, which belonged to elderly and disabled homeowners. Saunders and her accomplices attempted to steal another property from an elderly homeowner in 2019.
The ring also involved codefendants Marcus Wilcher, attorney Anyekache Hercules, Jerry Currin, and Dean Lloyd. Wilcher found homes in poor condition with absentee owners, while Hercules made fake legal documents to sell these properties. Saunders marketed the homes to investors at low prices and arranged fraudulent sales, using falsified documents and impersonators. They funneled more than $1 million in proceeds to themselves.
In December 2022, James announced the arrests and indictments of Wilcher, Saunders, Hercules, Currin, and Lloyd. Hercules, who was previously convicted of grand larceny in Kings County in 2018, pleaded guilty to scheme to defraud in the first degree and was sentenced to one and a half to three years in prison. Wilcher pleaded guilty to grand larceny in the second degree and sentenced to three to nine years in prison for the thefts of five homes in July 2024. Currin and Lloyd pleaded guilty to felony counts of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree.
“Deed theft is a heartless crime that targets the most valuable assets in vulnerable communities,” James said in a press release. “With the conviction of Stacie Saunders, my office is proud to have secured justice for the elderly New Yorkers that Saunders and her co-conspirators targeted with their predatory scheme. We will always work to combat deed theft and keep New Yorkers in their homes.”