A Long Island man has been found guilty of stealing two Harlem brownstones worth nearly $5 million, in a real estate fraud case built on forged paperwork. The verdict caps a scheme that prosecutors say allowed him to seize valuable New York City townhouses that were not his.
The man at the center of the case was identified as Joseph McHoney. A jury found him guilty of taking control of the two Harlem properties, bringing to a close a prosecution over how the buildings changed hands.
At the heart of the scheme, prosecutors said, were fake deeds. McHoney used the phony documents to put the two townhouses in his own name, doing so back in 2012, effectively stealing ownership of buildings on paper.
The alleged fraud did not stop at simply claiming the properties. Prosecutors said McHoney also forged an application in order to charge higher rent, turning the stolen buildings into a source of income based on falsified records.
The people caught in the middle were the tenants. According to prosecutors, McHoney tried to evict multiple tenants from the brownstones, putting residents at risk of losing their homes as part of his effort to take control of the buildings.
The value of what was taken underscored the scale of the case. The two Harlem brownstones were worth nearly $5 million, making the fraudulent takeover a substantial theft in one of the city's most storied neighborhoods.
With the guilty verdict now in, McHoney faces serious consequences. Authorities said he could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison, a potential penalty that reflects the size of the fraud and the years-long effort to hold onto the stolen properties.