Long Beach man, 2 others, plead guilty in foreclosure scam, DA says

A Long Beach man and two associates have pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $400,000 in foreclosure funds from a Queens woman, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Tuesday.

Jonathan Marcus, 53, of Long Beach, Vincent Longobardi, 76, of Brooklyn, and Edward Doran, 46, of Orange County and the company East Coast Money Finders Inc., pleaded guilty to criminal possession of stolen property on June 23.

The three men forged signatures claiming $394,216 of surplus funds disbursed by the New York City Department of Finance in 2016 that resulted from a foreclosure sale of the house of a Cambria Heights woman, the home's original owner.

The men had made inquiries to the city finance department about the surplus money from a 2006 foreclosure multiple times over five years before filing a claim in 2015 using forged signatures from the former owners, stating that the money would be split between the finder company and the former owners.

The victim, 67, and her late husband never received any of the money disbursed and never gave permission for anyone else to claim the funds, prosecutors said.

The woman  learned last year that the men had fraudulently claimed the money when she filed her own claim, according to the district attorney’s office.

As part of the plea deal, the three men and the company agreed to pay $416,216.95 in restitution to the woman, which included legal fees she incurred.

Attorneys for the three either could not be reached or declined to comment.

“In pleading guilty, the three defendants in this case took responsibility for illegally claiming a nearly $400,000 surplus from a foreclosure sale with forged signatures and fraudulent documents,” Katz said in a news release.

The three men will not get jail time but will be subject to a one-year conditional release, according to the district attorney’s office. The company will be subject to a three-year conditional release.