A disbarred Brooklyn attorney was sentenced to up to seven years in prison Wednesday for stealing properties from Brooklyn homeowners, according to prosecutors.
Defendant Sanford Solny, 68, of Midwood, stole the deeds to 11 residential properties, primarily from minority homeowners who were in financial distress, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. The defendant falsely promised to help facilitate short sales for the owners, but instead transferred ownership of the homes to himself or companies he controlled and collected rent for years.
Solny, whose law license was suspended in 2012 before he was disbarred in 2023, carried out a fraudulent real estate scheme targeting homeowners in foreclosure between 2012 and 2022, according to Gonzalez. He presented himself as a financial expert who could negotiate with lenders to sell the homes for less than what was owed on the mortgage — a process known as a short sale — to help clients avoid foreclosure. Instead, using an array of false statements, he tricked his victims into unwittingly signing over their deeds to corporations he controlled, the prosecutor said.
The defendant defrauded 15 victims, many of whom had limited legal or financial literacy by convincing them they were getting help. Instead, the defendant transferred ownership of their homes to his companies and in some cases collected rent from tenants already living there.
The 11 properties included homes in Bedford-Stuyvesant, East Flatbush, Canarsie, East New York and Ocean Hill, among other neighborhoods. Victims lost their homes, their equity and, in many cases, suffered damage to their credit as the foreclosure proceedings remained unresolved, Gonzalez said.
“This defendant is a serial scammer who deserves every day he will now spend behind bars," Gonzalez said in a statement. "He stole valuable homes, as well as the financial stability and integrity of his victims, leaving many in financial ruins."
In June, Solny was convicted with 13 counts of third-degree criminal possession of stolen property, three counts of first-degree scheme to defraud and one count of third-degree grand larceny in connection with the 11 properties.
Twelve corporations owned by the defendant were also convicted of 13 counts of third-degree criminal possession of stolen property and one count of third-degree grand larceny. The corporations were also ordered to pay $120,000 in fines.
The fraudulent deeds were nullified on Wednesday, Gonzalez said.
