Deed thief Joseph Makhani will be spending years in the slammer after being sentenced in a scheme to steal two Harlem brownstones.
A judge sentenced Makhani to seven to 21 years in prison after he was convicted of criminal possession of stolen property and a scheme to defraud, according to the New York Attorney General’s Office. He was sentenced to two separate consecutive terms for the two thefts, plus a concurrent term for the scheme to defraud count.
Makhani is also required to pay $500,000 in restitution to Flushing Bank. A future hearing will determine what to do about the deeds and mortgages attached to one of the two brownstones.
“Makhani’s heartless deed theft operation caused years of chaos for tenants and left the rightful owner of a valuable Harlem brownstone homeless,” New York AG Letitia James said in a statement. “This case sends a clear message to anyone who attempts to steal a home in New York: we will not rest until you are held accountable for your crimes.”
The AG’s office indicted Makhani in both 2021 and 2023 for deed theft at 107 West 118th Street and 135 West 131st Street, brownstones sporting a combined value of approximately $4.7 million.
Beginning in 2012, Makhani used false documents and shell companies to steal the deed of a brownstone at 107 West 118th Street from an elderly homeowner who was forced to live in a homeless shelter for years as a result, prosecutors alleged. 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.
Makhani falsely reported that he paid $975,000 for the West 118th Street property and received a $650,000 construction loan for renovations. He then refinanced and received a $1.2 million long-term mortgage loan on the property, according to the AG’s office.
Makhani also targeted 135 West 131st Street, where the last true deed recorded was from 1975, according to the attorney general. He took advantage of a beneficiary’s death in 2010 and approached one of the building’s tenants around 2012, falsely claiming he had purchased the brownstone.
Makhani secured the tenant’s signature by pretending to offer him a job. He then recreated the signature on a fraudulent deed to unlawfully transfer the property to One 35 West Corp., a company he controlled, the AG’s office said.
He endured a seven-week trial in July. The jury found him guilty after just 90 minutes of deliberation.
Makhani’s schemes stretch back decades.
In 1999, he and his brother Kamran Makhani pleaded guilty for their roles in a scheme involving foreclosed properties in Queens. They were fined and sentenced to three months in prison. Nine years later, companies in which Joseph Makhani was a principal pleaded guilty in State Supreme Court to filing false deeds as part of a housing scam in Queens and were fined $5,000 each.
Read more
Inside Joseph Makhani’s deed theft machine
Long Island man convicted in $4.7M Harlem deed theft scheme
Letitia James scores first conviction under deed theft law
