Brooklyn man charged with trying to steal Flatlands house
Defandant allegedly tried to transfer ownership of landlord's rental property worth $759,000 to trust in his name
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced on Tuesday that a Brooklyn man has been charged with grand larceny and burglary for allegedly filing a fake deed to transfer ownership of his landlord’s $759,000 rental property to a trust in the defendant’s name.
The district attorney identified the defendant as James Effiwatt, 64, of Flatlands. Effiwatt was arraigned Tuesday before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on an indictment in which he is charged with one count of second-degree burglary, one count of second-degree grand larceny and two counts of fourth-degree attempted grand larceny. The defendant was ordered held on bail of $25,000 bond or $10,000 cash and ordered to return to court on Feb. 15, 2022.
According to the investigation, on Jan, 15, 2021, Effiwatt allegedly recorded a deed to a three-story house at 36 Hubbard Place in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn that transferred the title of the property from the owner, Hubbard Estates LLC, to an entity called the “Ayonkladd Trust,” of which the defendant was the trustee.
The deed was allegedly signed by Effiwatt as a guarantor, despite the fact that he is not a member or trustee of Hubbard Estates LLC. The building has an assessed value of $759,000. It has been owned by the legitimate owner, a 49-year-old woman, since 2015.
Gonzalez said that furthermore, the investigation revealed that Effiwatt is a former tenant of 36 Hubbard Place who lived in the third floor attic apartment for several years beginning in August 2015. Effiwatt allegedly stopped paying rent in the summer of 2017 and was eventually ordered to vacate the property in October 2019 by city housing officials over housing code violations.
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