Fraudster indicted for stealing Harlem brownstones

A Long Island man with a decades-long history of crimes has been indicted a second time for stealing two brownstones in Harlem.

New York Attorney General Lettiia James indicted Joseph Makhani, 60, of Kings Point, Long Island, for the thefts of 107 West 118th Street and 135 West 131st Street.

Makhani forged documents and used shell companies to hide the crimes, state officials alleged.

The Long Island man was arraigned Monday in Manhattan and pleaded not guilty to two counts of criminal possession of stolen property and one count of scheme to defraud.

“This crime harms entire communities, especially those facing population displacement and gentrification,” said James in a statement.

Makhani falsely reported that he paid $975,000 for the West 118th Street property and received a $650,000 construction loan for renovations. He refinanced, receiving a $1.2 million mortgage on the property, the state said.

The previous resident ended up in a homeless shelter. Meanwhile, between 2016 and 2023, Makhani rented out four units for between $3,000 and $3,400 per month after he received approval from the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development to convert the home into market-rate rentals.

The last true deed recorded on the 131st Street property was from 1975, state officials said, in the name of an elderly owner who died soon after. When a beneficiary who took over management passed away in 2010, Makhani took advantage.

In 2012, Makhani told a building tenant that he had purchased the brownstone, and secured the tenant’s signature by pretending to offer him a job. The forged signature was used to file a new deed showing the tenant as the owner of the building. The deed was then transferred to One 35 West Corp., a company Makhani controlled.

The Long Island man filed another deed to show the initial owner of the property had transferred the building to him, even using a Social Security number from someone born in 1902.

Makhani was indicted by James in 2012 on seven counts including criminal possession of stolen property and residential mortgage fraud. He was sued by HPD in 2013, which fined him $1 million for failing to maintain the brownstone. Makhani later abandoned the property, which was then foreclosed on.

Makhani has a rap sheet of real estate crimes dating back to the 1990s. He spent three months in prison after pleading guilty in 1998 to bid-rigging foreclosed properties in Queens and submitting a false tax return, the New York Post reported, and 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 faces up to 25 years in state prison, James said.

Deed theft is difficult to prove when victims are tricked into signing legal documents. James has proposed making prosecution of it easier by passing a law making deed theft a crime. 

A representative for Makhani could not be reached for comment.

Update: Following publication of this story, Makhani emailed TRD, “I categorically deny all the allegations against me.” He added, “We are confident that after all the facts and the evidence of the case [are presented], the truth will be shown as the opposite of the attorney general’s self-serving, baseless accusations.”

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