After years of legal maneuvers and more than 50 adjournments, Sanford Solny, the real estate investor accused of stealing dozens of homes from financially struggling homeowners across New York City, was jailed at a probation hearing this week.
For over a decade, Mr. Solny built a real estate empire through deed theft, prosecutors said. He targeted homeowners who had fallen behind on their payments, presenting himself as a lawyer who could negotiate with banks to arrange a short sale. The pitch sounded like a win-win: The distressed homeowner would receive a modest payout and the debt would be erased.
In reality, these homeowners did not sign off on relief from their loans, but on the title to their homes. The mortgage often remained in their names, even as Mr. Solny installed renters in the homes and began collecting rent.
In 2018, he pleaded guilty in the State Supreme Court in Queens to possession of stolen property and a year later, he was sentenced to five years of probation. He violated that probation less than three months after it began in 2019 by stealing another home — this one in Brooklyn.
That theft — first uncovered in a New York Times investigation — came into focus in a State Supreme Court trial in Brooklyn that concluded this summer, in which Mr. Solny was convicted of stealing 11 homes. He was allowed to go free as he waited for sentencing, which is expected to take place in Brooklyn later this month.
Mr. Solny was instead on Tuesday taken into custody in a courtroom in Queens during his probation hearing. The development was unexpected: The 68-year-old, who has high blood pressure, had not brought his medication, said James Kousouros, one of Mr. Solny’s criminal defense lawyers, who claimed that his client had been “sandbagged.”
Justice Nestor Diaz, of the State Supreme Court, declined the appeal by Mr. Solny’s lawyer, who argued that Mr. Solny’s health is fragile and that jailing him on the eve of Yom Kippur was insensitive. The court is adjourned until Nov. 10, and Mr. Solny is expected to stay in custody until then. His sentencing in the Brooklyn case could extend his jail time.
Mr. Solny’s victims, most of whom are Black or Latino, expressed a sense of solace. Some have been fighting to get their titles back for more than a decade, but it is unclear if they can be retrieved.
Others said it was too little too late. “It’s about time,” said Lisa Abbott, who said that she was duped into signing away her property to Mr. Solny in 2012, after the growing payment on her mortgage made it difficult to keep up with her bills.
Like others, Ms. Abbott said that she turned to Mr. Solny when she was on the brink of foreclosure on the triplex she owned in Bedford-Stuyvesant and said that he offered to negotiate a short sale.
Ms. Abbott’s property at 53 Van Buren Street was listed in the initial indictment against Mr. Solny, but did not figure among the homes for which he was convicted. She said that Mr. Solny gave her a small payment under $15,000 with a promise of a large payment once the triplex was sold. The large payment never materialized, she lost the title to her home, and the property is now valued at around $1.8 million, she said.
“It has been very, very financially, emotionally draining,” said Ms. Abbott, 53. “It has cost me so much of my health.”
Mr. Solny’s lawyers argued that he posed no flight risk, noting that his cases had been adjourned some 50 times without incident. They said that in the Brooklyn case, he and his LLCs had been acquitted on dozens of other criminal charges, including some of the most serious. But John McNiff, representing the New York Department of Probation, said that the convictions that did stand were far from minor and involved the theft of 11 different homes.
“This is not stealing something from Walmart,” Mr. McNiff said, according to a transcript of the court proceeding. “This is basically a house. It takes a lot of work.”
Rukmini Callimachi is a reporter covering real estate and housing for The Times.
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