An accused heartless real-estate scammer landed on trial Monday for allegedly swiping two Manhattan brownstones from their owners — including an 83-year-old woman who ended up in a shelter collecting cans.
Property thief Joseph Makhani is facing charges involving stolen property and fraud for swindling his way into owning the pair of pricey Harlem properties worth a total of nearly $5 million between 2012 and 2023, the state Attorney General’s Office said.
Among the witnesses scheduled to testify against Makhani is Veronica Palmer, the elderly Harlem property owner who was kicked out of the building she purchased in 1985 in the alleged cruel scam.
“He didn’t use a crowbar,” prosecutor Nazy Modiri said during statements in Manhattan Supreme Court, referring to Makhani.
“He didn’t break a window. His tools were forged signatures, fraudulent deeds and false documents.
“[Palmer] could have sold the home for a good amount of money,” Modiri said. “But Ms. Palmer didn’t want to sell it. Harlem was her neighborhood, and this property was her home.”
But Makhani, 63, pounced after the building at 107 W. 118th St. fell into disrepair and took possession by falsifying documents, then used the property to get his hands on a $1.2 million loan he wasn’t entitled to, prosecutors said in opening statements.
Palmer, a former corrections officer who had struggled to maintain her property, ended up in a Brownsville homeless shelter — and was unable to be located when Makhani was indicted in 2023.
Modiri said the elderly victim has since been found and will take the witness stand against her scammer.
State Attorney General Letitia James first indicted Makhani over the building deal in 2021, but the developer beat the case on a technicality — only to have James file a second indictment two years later.
The con man snagged a second brownstone at 135 W. 131st St. by convincing tenant Tyrone Boozier to claim ownership and signing the property over to Makhani, even though the actual owner had died years earlier, prosecutors said.
Boozier is also expected to testify against Makhani at trial, also.
“The defendant ran a calculated, years-long scheme to take ownership of these two Manhattan homes that did not belong to him,” the prosecutor told jurors. “These brownstones were the perfect target. They were homes of the vulnerable, in disrepair.
“And owned by the vulnerable — the elderly and families dealing with death and loss,” Modiri added.
Makhani’s lawyer, Susan Necheles, countered that her client is not a fraudster but a family man building a life and supporting his family — and actually saved Palmer’s brownstone when it was falling apart and riddled with unpaid mortage bills and taxes.
“He is not a deed fraudster,” Necheles said. “He did not defraud anyone out of the properties or money.”
