NY Daily News
A Brooklyn developer who federal prosecutors say took condo buyers and banks for more than $18 million in an elaborate mortgage scam was indicted Wednesday on bank fraud charges.
The case against Eliyahu Ezagui, 48, who feds say preyed on his fellow Hasidic Jews in Crown Heights, stems from a Daily News investigation last year. Ezagui enticed scores of families into buying the homes but never turned over the deeds, according to the indictment and The News’ probe.
“The defendant engaged in fraud to steal money from innocent homebuyers and financial institutions,” said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell.
Preconstruction prices ranged from $90,000 to $160,000 per unit at two locations, 770Lefferts Ave. and 613 East New York Ave., according to the indictment and The News’ probe.
Ezagui told buyers, nearly all with young children, that the projects had the blessing of community religious leaders. Instead of giving buyers deeds when construction was completed, he kept them for himself, his father, his mother, his wife and two business associates.
Then, Ezagui took out more than $18 million in mortgages on apartments already purchased and occupied by the buyers and their families, according to the indictment. He pocketed the money, paid the mortgages for a time, then stopped and fled to Israel after The News broke the story, according to authorities.
Feds were waiting with an arrest warrant when Ezagui flew back and landed at JFK Airport July 13, 2008.
Many of the families are facing foreclosure on their apartments. Mortgage lenders including JPMorgan Chase, the Bank of New York, Sovereign Bank and HSBC, along with the condominium owners, have losses of about $18 million.
Last year, Ezagui said he took out the mortgages to pay off construction loans and other debt on the project and maintained that he is bankrupt. He is free on $3 million bail, but he’s confined to his home and is wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet.
His lawyer, John Meringolo, predicted Ezagui will prevail against the criminal charges.
“We feel the allegations in the indictment barely rise to the level of a civil case let alone a federal indictment,” Meringolo said.
you guys are insane. He comitted mortgage fraud plain and simple. Why is everyone complicating the story. He should go to jail like the rest of the people that play games with the system. It was not legal… end of story.. who cares that he gave to charity.. so many religious jews steal from other OBESERVENT jews.. I have never seen so much stealing in my life until I became an observant. So many games so many people trying to fly just beneath the radar.. saying well what they are doing is ok… if you are out to one up… Read more »
You are a perfect example of how low people stoop for money and greed and apparently you don’t care about Messira, not one bit, and until someone does it to you, you will not understand. No1 you can get $ out of any empty stone. 2 you can’t get something out of a guy who may end up in jail. Now on the other end I do feel bad for people whose dreams and hopes were dashed, but over money issues there is still no doubt that Messira is Wrong and against Halocho! So tell me is your taxes up… Read more »
@ nydailynews.com(!!!), in the comments, after the article, you can read some of the worst anti semitic comments.
i love you eli keep up the good work
What happened here is rampant and is happening and being done by the biggest and most shrude baalei tezdakah and I mean the biggest and “most popular” in our midst .They will be revealed sooner or later, what is unfortunate, in the meantime the innocent suffer, but as my mother always said “each dog has his day”! wait and see!
You are ignoring one basic fundamental point of halacha. There is something called Geneivas Daas. Even if on paper, everything looks 100%kosher, if you are clearly misleading someone, then you are transgressing Geneivas Daas. In this case, the people certainly felt misled when he took mortgages on their houses. Saying that he paid the mortgages for 10 years doesn’t make him any less guilty for misleading people. If he decided to sell the condos at 50% off for cash that doesn’t make the buyers guilty. They could have thought that he was genuinely doing a mitzvah. If he would have… Read more »
BS”D All the people that went to authorities are pure Moisrim, to the fullest extent of Jewish law. The man may have robbed innocent although GREEDY people, with false promises, but remember the old saying anything that sounds too good to be true is not true. This idiot Ezagui promised these suckers a $200,000 apartment for $100,000. and they came up with the cash. Ezagui then gave them the apartment and they moved in. Ezagui then took mortgages out only on the apartments that people bought for deep discounts ($100,000) literally 50% of the $200,000 value. Ezagui then paid these… Read more »
could you please explain to me how this is called helping yidden, having the mortgages in names of his family members is done totally with sound mind, so how could this be in the name of “helping yidden” dont tell me this guy is a tzaddik. And talking about mesirah, you think all these people should have just said “let bygones be bygones” and move on?? are you for real??
That is bull . When it came to giving the deed as he promised and promised he never did that. he had plenty of chances to work things out but no he thought he would get away with everything. do you think that even that amont given to him was not a lot for those people he is a ganuf and should pay for his mistakes.
its sad to see how quick people are to write him off, he has only been accused. lets wait until the verdict before we pass judgment. most of the people who purchased from him knew exactly what was going on, he was helping them out too because they didn’t have money to as down payments, so lets all take a deep breath and be Don Lacaf Zechus to a person who has given allot of tzedakah and supported many chabad houses and institutions
That he had only good intentions!
Actually he helped millions of yidden. This is the most frightening development of Anti Semitism since Mendel Beilis.
On a more serious note; hopefully all will have a yeshuah.
this was LOW LOW Mesirah, and kfiya tova!
he tried to help them get low mortgage, this is how the pay him back?
people who prey on the weak, taking advantage of honest hard working families are especially rotten in my book. but stealing is stealing technically.
And if they didn’t have whole families, then is it okay to steal from peoples without whole families??
WHY? WHY? They have kids! Whole Families! WHY?