LI man sentenced for stealing $1M Brooklyn brownstone, DA says

A Mount Sinai man was sentenced Wednesday to 1½ to 4½ years in prison for stealing a $1 million brownstone from an 80-year-old Brooklyn homeowner in a fraudulent deed scheme, authorities said.

Craig Hecht, 52, also was ordered to pay $850,000 restitution to the title insurance company that had to reimburse a homebuyer, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement.

Hecht had pleaded guilty Dec. 4 to second-degree grand larceny and second-degree money laundering, Gonzalez said.

His attorney could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Hecht and an unapprehended co-defendant stole the deed to 260 Clifton Place, a two-story Bedford-Stuyvesant brownstone owned by a retired teacher, prosecutors said. She and her family had lived in the home for more than 30 years until a 2010 fire made the building uninhabitable. 

In April 2015, Hecht set up an LLC with the New York State Department of State and a co-defendant opened a bank account 10 days later under the LLC. The victim did not know Hecht and the co-defendant had done this, prosecutors said.

In September of that year, Hecht set up a closing in which the home was transferred to an entity called TDA Development. The homeowner’s signature was forged to transfer the property to TDA, and proceeds went into an account controlled by the co-defendant, prosecutors said.

After that closing, prosecutors said the home was sold to the buyer for $850,000 with most of the sale proceeds going into a TDA bank account opened by the co-defendant, officials said.

The 80-year-old victim learned of the theft when a neighbor called to tell her that a new property owner was working on the house, prosecutors said. She then notified the district attorney's office.