Sheepshead Bay

Sheepshead Bay woman gets six years for posing as real estate agent to steal $600,000

October 11, 2018 By Rob Abruzzese, Legal Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle
A Sheepshead Bay woman was sentenced to two to six years by Acting Supreme Court Justice Martin Murphy. Eagle file photo
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A woman from Sheepshead Bay could spend the next six years in prison after she was sentenced on Thursday for stealing approximately $613,000 from 20 different people while she posed as a real estate agent.

Yelena Litvak, 56, signed a confession and pleaded guilty last month to three counts of second-degree grand larceny. She was sentenced to an indeterminate term of two to six years in prison for each count, which will run concurrently, by Justice Martin Murphy.

“The defendant cheated more than a dozen innocent people out of their life savings and hard-earned cash, then gambled it away,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. “I will not tolerate these kinds of fraudulent and criminal actions in Brooklyn. With today’s sentence, the defendant has been held accountable.”

According to prosecutors, between Jan. 2017 and March 2018, Litvak pretended to be a real estate agent and property manager of various Mitchell-Lama housing developments, which are city-sponsored developments that provide rental and cooperative housing for moderate and middle-income households.

She falsely claimed that she could facilitate rentals of apartments at the Kings Bay Housing Company in Brooklyn, and often targeted middle-aged Russian immigrants in Sheepshead Bay and Brighton Beach by offering to help them “fast track” applications in exchange for cash payments, according to prosecutors.

The 20 victims each lost between $15,000 and $82,000. She gambled most of the money away at casinos, prosecutors said.

 

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