Charge attorney stole Sergeant’s house too

Suspended Richmond Hill attorney N. Stephen Sukhdeo is also charged in a separate real estate scheme in which he fraudulently obtained the Queens house of a U.S. Army sergeant serving overseas.
Maryland resident Jillian Lord was allegedly given power of attorney over her sister Andine Lord’s property, located at 104-13 126th Street in Richmond Hill, while she served as a sergeant in the United States Army in Korea.
In August 2002, the Lords entered into an agreement for Queens Village real estate broker Richard Persuad to represent them in the sale of the property. The following month, Jillian Lord, on her sister’s behalf, entered into a contract to sell the house to Persuad for $237,000.
The price was substantially less than the market value because Persuad had allegedly never shown the house to prospective buyers and, as an out-of-state resident Lord relied on his representation of the property’s value.
According to the charges, Persuad knew he had been rejected for a mortgage and was unable to close. Sukhdeo stepped up and agreed to buy the property for himself, fix it up and sell it.
Lord later attended what she believed was a closing on the property in February 2003 at Sukhdeo’s office. She signed all relevant closing documents, including a deed purporting to convey title of the property from Andine Lord to Persaud.
However, a review of the records indicated that there was no deed conveying the Richmond Hill property from Lord to Persaud.
Instead, records only showed the property being transferred from Lord to Ana Zola Colero for a purchase price of $334,750. Colero too was represented by Sukhdeo at the closing.
District Attorney Richard A. Brown said that Lord’s signature on the deed had been forged and that she never received the nearly $100,000 difference in sale prices.
In addition, a review of Sukhdeo’s account at North Fork Bank revealed that a check was allegedly paid out to Persaud for $20,000 - even though he did not represent Colero at the closing, nor was he listed as a broker on any of the closing documents.
Persaud, 36, was arrested on August 2 and charged with second-degree grand larceny, first-degree falsifying business records and first-degree scheme to defraud.