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Manhattan Property Owner Charged in Fraudulent Sale
of Jointly-Owned Building
LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for
the Southern District of New York, and JOSEPH M. DEMAREST JR.,
the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation’s New York Field Division ("FBI"), announced today
that MARK M. BENUN was arrested this morning on a criminal
Complaint charging him with interstate transportation of a
portion of the proceeds from the fraudulent sale, for more than
$5 million, of a building at 161st Street in the Bronx. BENUN
was arrested this morning at his Manhattan home by agents of the
FBI. According to the criminal Complaint unsealed today in
Manhattan federal court:
In June 2006, BENUN and another individual purchased
the commercial property located at 67-79 E. 161st Street, for
approximately $9.5 million. Payment was made with $4.5 million
in cash, contributed by BENUN’s co-purchaser, plus a $5 million
mortgage in favor of the seller, to be paid by BENUN and his copurchaser.
BENUN and his co-purchaser later obtained an
additional $700,000 mortgage from the seller; BENUN additionally
obtained a $2 million loan from a bank, guaranteed by his copurchaser
and secured by a further mortgage on the property.
BENUN had a 25% interest in the property, and his co-purchaser
held the remaining 75%.
In February 2009 BENUN, purporting to be the sole owner
of the property, sold it for approximately $5.96 million to
another buyer, who paid $4 million in cash and gave BENUN a note
for the remaining $1.96 million. Shortly after the sale BENUN
sold the note, discounted, for $1.46 million. To establish his
apparent sole ownership of the building, BENUN created false
satisfactions of the three mortgages on the property, and a fraudulent transfer of ownership of his co-purchaser’s 75%
interest in the property to him. BENUN persuaded a notary who
works across the hall from him to notarize the forgeries,
claiming that the individuals whose signatures were on the
documents were stuck in traffic. Funds from the sale were traced
to an account in the name of BENUN’s company, MBM1 Owners LLC.
Approximately $150,000 of those funds have been identified as
being wired from MBM1's New York account to accounts out of
state.
BENUN, 35, of New York, New York, is charged with one
count of interstate transportation of stolen property, which
carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a fine of
the greater of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss resulting
from the crime.
Assistant United States Attorney CHRISTOPHER D. FREY is
in charge of the prosecution.
The charges and allegations contained in the Complaint
are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent
unless and until proven guilty.
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