Elmont man stole 10-year-old niece's inheritance, Queens DA says

An Elmont man was charged Wednesday for allegedly stealing his then-10-year-old niece’s inheritance after falsifying property records to take sole possession of a house jointly owned by him and his late brother, authorities said.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz’s office alleged that Wagner Recio, 51, fraudulently took possession of a Queens Village house that he and his brother Alejandro co-owned. His brother died in 2014. Wagner Recio's niece, who was 10 when her father died, was the rightful heir to half of the house, which is valued at more than $500,000, according to the District Attorney’s office.

“As alleged, this defendant used fraudulent records to assume full ownership of a Queens property, half of which rightfully belonged to his brothers’ daughter,” Katz said in a news release Wednesday. “The defendant is accused of unlawfully taking out a mortgage on the property of more than $250,000, with an estimated $97,000 received as a direct cash pay-out — all unbeknownst to his young niece or her guardian.”

Recio was arraigned in New York State Supreme Court in Queens on eight charges including grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, residential mortgage fraud, three counts of falsifying business records and two counts of offering a false instruction for filing. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

Recio’s attorney did not immediately return a call for comment Wednesday.

The brothers owned the house on 220th Street and when Alejandro Recio died, his interest in the property passed onto his daughter, according to Katz’s office.

The child’s mother became the guardian of her property after the father’s death. The mother discovered in January that the deed to the property had allegedly been changed from “Alejandro Recio and Wagner Recio” to only “Wagner Recio,” according to Katz’s office.

A subsequent investigation found, according to the District Attorney, that Wagner Recio elicited the support of three others to file affidavits with title and mortgage companies that he was the sole heir and a falsified deed was registered with Queens County. He then, allegedly, took out a $261,000 mortgage on the house.

The District Attorney’s press office said Wednesday that there was no evidence the mortgage or title companies were aware of the alleged fraud. The status of the ownership of the property is unclear.

“Our goal is to always make the victim whole by restoring the deed/property to the rightful owner,” the DA’s press office said in an email.