PARK SLOPE, Brooklyn (WABC) — The eviction of a 90-year-old Brooklyn homeowner who says he was the victim of fraud has been temporarily stayed.
For over half a century, Ray Cortez lived in the brownstone house in Park Slope, where he raised his three children and was expected to spend his final days.
The 90-year-old is now fighting in court for his right to remain in his home after he says he was threatened with eviction because the house’s title deed shows a different owner.
Cortez bought the house for $20,000 in 1969, long before the million-dollar condos were built and the Barclays Center moved in.
Now the house is valued at nearly $3 million.
The fraud that Cortez fell victim to is complicated, but the complication itself is part of the fraud.
In 2006, Cortez, needing money for renovations, was persuaded to sign the deed to his home to a con man who had previously served a prison sentence.
A deed was issued in Cortez’s name and notarized by a corrupt lawyer, but was never registered.
The scammer took out a loan of nearly $700,000 on the house and the bank eventually sold it at foreclosure for $2 million.
The 90-year-old only found out about it a decade later.
A banner reading “Victim of Property Theft” hangs outside 90-year-old Ray Cortez’s brownstone home, demanding justice in his property title fraud case.
Cortez’s attorney said this type of fraud is common in gentrified neighborhoods.
“If you go into certain neighborhoods that are predominantly populated by people of color, from Prospect Heights to East New York and then southeast Queens, everyone on every block knows someone who has been a victim of deed theft or real estate fraud,” said his attorney, Bill Lienhard.
Cortez’s son, Ray Jr., is helping his father navigate the legal quagmire that he says is the result of a decades-old fraud.
“You know, it’s heartbreaking. It’s been too long that he’s had to carry this with him. It was devastating,” Ray Jr. said.
Now his neighbors, who have known Cortez for almost 40 years, are supporting him.
“The perfect neighbor. All of us on this street are just horrified. I mean, we can’t imagine what this must be doing to him emotionally,” said neighbor Tom Harriman.
There is a division in the Attorney General’s Office that deals with this type of real estate fraud and is investigating the Cortez case.
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