Greed got the better of one uncle who tried to steal his niece’s share of a home that he once jointly owned with his brother, who died a decade ago, according to the office of District Attorney Melinda Katz.
Wagner Recio, 52, of Elmont, LI, was sentenced on May 1 for filing fraudulent paperwork claiming to fully own a home on 220th Street in Queens Village, said prosecutors.
Recio and his brother, Alejandro Recio, owned the house as tenants in common, which means that if one of them passed away their heirs would inherit that share in the home, according to the New York City Bar Association.
In 2014, Recio’s brother died and his unnamed niece, then 10, became the sole heir of her father’s share of the property, per his will. The girl’s mother was designated to act on her daughter’s behalf by the court.
From June 1 to July 13, 2021, Recio filed affidavits with two mortgage companies, Equity and Meadowbrook Financial Brokers Inc., claiming he was the sole heir to his brother’s interest in the home and arranged for three other individuals to file separate affidavits attesting to his ownership of the property. He received a mortgage of $261,000 from Meadowbrook, used approximately $145,000 to pay off a previous mortgage and pocketed $97,000 as a cash payout, said the DA’s Office.
The uncle later filed a closing and revised property deed naming himself the sole owner and then filed the falsified deed with the New York City Register in Queens, which maintains property-related documents, according to authorities.
In January 2022, the mother of niece discovered the deed change and contacted Katz’ office. After an in-depth investigation by the DA’s Housing and Worker Protection Bureau, Recio was charged for filing fraudulent paperwork.
“This defendant falsified documents to steal interest in a home that was not rightfully his but was, in fact, his niece’s,” said Katz in a statement. “After an in-depth investigation by my office’s Housing and Worker Protection Bureau, we were able to bring charges against the defendant and now have made sure that the victim has received what was rightfully hers all along.”
In December 2022, Recio pleaded guilty to offering a false instrument for filing in the first and second degrees and as part of a plea agreement, agreed to nullify the deed. After the house was sold, proceeds went to his niece as restitution. He was sentenced to a conditional discharge by Queens Supreme Court Justice Judge Toni M. Cimino.
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