Man Stole Nine Brooklyn, Queens Homes With False Documents: DA

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN — A Long Island man who prosecutors said stole nine homes in Queens and Brooklyn was sentenced to at least four years in prison Wednesday.

Danny Noble, 49, and an accomplice led the scam by illegally transferring titles and filing false documents to take houses in Fort Greene, East New York, Canarsie, Bushwick, Bed-Stuy and Queens, according to the district attorney's office. Noble would rent out some of the homes and sell others.

“In Brooklyn, we take real estate scams very seriously," Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. "The houses targeted in this fraud are worth millions of dollars. My prosecutors and investigators worked diligently to expose this fraudulent scheme and bring this defendant to justice."

Noble was sentenced to four and a half to nine years in prison after he pled guilty to first-degree criminal possession of stolen property and fourth-degree conspiracy. His accomplice, 41-year-old Romelo Grey, of Freeport, pleaded guilty to falsifying business records and was sentenced to one and a half to three years in prison.

Prosecutors said the men targeted certain houses that the owners rarely visited, such as a Fort Greene brownstone on North Oxford Street whose owner lived outside of the United States. Four of the houses stolen were in Fort Greene, according to records..

The pair would then illegally transfer titles and use various schemes to cash in on the homes.

Noble rented out two apartments in the North Oxford home for $1,500 a month and rented out two homes he stole in Queens. With another house on Putnam Avenue in Bushwick, Noble filed a false satisfaction of the mortgage.

On other homes, he and Grey would transfer the titles into the names of third parties.

Investigators first started to uncover the scheme when the owner of one of the properties in Canarsie called the police.

Grey and Noble had transferred the title of the East 95th Street home to a third party. Grey then visited the house with the buyer to inspect it and told the tenants living there to move out.

When the buyer began renovating the house, the workers saw an employee of a business across the street that was owned by the true homeowner. They had the employee call the homeowner, who then called the police.

As part of the scheme, Noble, the leader, filed false documents with the New York City Department of Finance, Office of the City Register, which maintains land records and other real property filings in New York City, including records relating to ownership and encumbrances, such as liens and mortgages.

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