MAX
COURIER L M BR B G IFE, MAY 31–JUNE 6, 2019 17
DA indicts four frauds
who sold Canarsie
home they didn’t own
CHARGED: District Attorney Eric Gonzalez indicted four
men who sold a Canarsie home — which did not belong to
them — for $276,000. Shutterstock
BY AIDAN GRAHAM
Brooklyn’s top prosecutor
has indicted four
scammers for allegedly
selling a Canarsie home
which they did not own.
District Attorney Eric
Gonzalez announced
the charges on May 22
against Ramjit Jaikaran
of Queens, Colin Hill of
Queens, Kaso Rampersad
of Florida, and Justin
Codrington of New
Rochelle in relation to
the 2017 scheme.
Prosecutors allege the
four men fraudulently
convinced a Guyanese
couple to pay $276,000 for
the home, located on E.
94th Street in Canarsie.
The home was actually
registered to Ruth Adelman,
who died in 1993
and did not have a will.
According to a subsequent
investigation,
Jaikaran acted as a real
estate agent on behalf of
Rampersad, who posed
as the heir to the deceased
homeowner. Hill,
impersonating a lawyer,
presented the victims
will falsifi ed documents,
including a fraudulent
deed and birth certifi -
cate, purporting to show
Rampersad’s legal ownership
of the property.
The victims handed
over two bank checks,
totalling $276,000, to
the con artists, believing
they were purchasing
the legal rights to
the Southern Brooklyn
home, according to Gonzalez.
Codrington deposited
one of the ill-gotten
checks to a shell corporation,
Gonzalez said,
while the other was
chased by a company
controlled by Jaikaran’s
wife.
The victims learned
that they had been defrauded
several months
later, when they were
sued by Valley Capital
Partners, LLC, which
had truly purchased the
home from the deceased
homeowners actual next
of kin, according to prosecutors.
The four men face a
maximum of 15 years in
prison if convicted of the
top charges.
Each was hit with
various charges in the
20-count indictment,
which included conspiracy,
identity theft, and
falsifying business records.
Codrington is being
held on $30,000 bail,
while the other three
were released without
bail, prosecutors said.
The four men are due
back in court on June
26.
Gonzalez used the
indictment to reaffi rm
his offi ce’s pledge to the
prosecution of homeowner
fraud.
“I am committed to
protecting homeowners
and home purchasers in
Brooklyn and will now
seek to hold the defendants
accountable for
this alleged scheme,”
said Gonzalez. “As property
values continue to
rise in Brooklyn, protecting
residents from fraudulent
real estate schemes
is a top priority.”