Somehow, a parishioner at the Free Mission Action Movement Church in East New York, Brooklyn managed to steal the church and sell it to a developer. How could this happen? Well, the City Register doesn't check deeds for authenticity, enabling many scammers to attempt steal property.
The Daily News reports that the "con-man parishioner" Derrick Jones "easily managed to get the City Register to record forged deeds" for the $1 million church and property. Jones would use notaries public and a title deed company to add some "legitimacy" as well. Bishop Walter Dunlap first found out about the scam in 2004, but managed to convince the multiple-sclerorsis-afflicted Jones to deed the property back.
The case will be heard in Brooklyn Supreme Court. A Brooklyn DA's office prosecutor explained to the News, "All you need is notarized signatures on a deed form. Once that deed is filed, you can obtain a mortgage on the property, you can rent it, you can sell it, whatever. There are hundreds of cases of deed fraud in the city every year." The City Register's office says it is working on preventing fraud.Remarkably, Jones did it again, drawing up another set of false deeds filed with the City Register and stealing the property a second time, records show.
He then sold the property for $50,000, along with yet another set of forged deeds used to transfer the property to the Vasilios Corp., run by Thankam Vasilakos of Queens, court documents show.
Vasilakos, who intended to develop the property into apartments, is suing the church and the title company, claiming she owns the property.
Jones has also tried to steal a neighbor's house, with the same deed scam, but his deed-filing-fee check bounced. Previously, a man tried to repeatedly steal the Soho Grand Hotel by filing claims of ownership through a company specializing in property deeds.




I tried to steal the deed to the World Trade Center years ago, but the registrar said that the document I handed her was flawed. apparently, the Port Authority was no longer listed as the owner, it was a guy named Sherman Fischbein in Fort Lee, NJ. Bastard.
What a greedy bitch. The church cannot be held liable for fraud. It's partly her fault anyway for not checking on the ownership of the church in city property records. Does anyone really think they can legitimately buy any property in the city for a mere $50,000? Not even in the worst neighborhood one can imagine. She knew it was fraud and played along with it anyway.
Hey, lady (and I use the term loosely), I can give you a good price on the Brooklyn Bridge, too.
Apparently if you can get the form notarized you could indeed have the Brooklyn Bridge. What kind of idiotic procedures do we have here in the world's largest and what one would hope to be one of the world's most modern cities if this kind of crap can get through? Good grief.
You can't bring bottled water or trweezers on an airplane, but you can steal an entire physical buildings with a bit of notary stamp skulduggery.
Mission accomplished.
I hope the guy is an atheist; if not, he doesn't have a whole lot to look forward to.
Who would be stupid enough to buy the Brooklyn Bridge? But I do have a twenty year concession on the new toll booths they are putting in. Do I have any takers for stock in that company?
For Punishment Thankam Vasilakos and Derrick Jones should be forced to Fight to the Death, and the winner should get shot in the head to get a 1 way ticket to HELL