Landlord allegedly stole tenants’ ID

Two women sharing a Rego Park apartment have been charged with assuming the identities of the previous tenants - a married couple - and opening approximately 19 credit card accounts in their names and making nearly $70,000 in unauthorized purchases.
Consuelo Hernandez, 44, and Rhina E. Landaverde, both of 65-74 Saunders Street, are charged with second- and third-degree grand larceny, second-degree forgery, second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and first-degree identity theft. If convicted, they each face up to 15 years in prison.
According to the charges, Katia Shpilberg and her husband, Yaniv Shpilberg, vacated their Saunders Street apartment on August 24, 2006. Shpilberg executed a change of address form with the U.S. Postal Service so that the couple’s mail would be forwarded from the Saunders Street address to their new residence in central New Jersey.
Nearly a year later, on May 4, 2007, the Postal Service received via its web site a change of address form allegedly from the Shpilbergs, indicating that they wanted their mail forwarded from their New Jersey address back to their former Rego Park address. Having discovered that her address had been changed without her knowledge or permission, Shpilberg reversed the change of address to ensure that her mail would once again be delivered to her current New Jersey address.
However, on June 10 of this year, the Postal Service once again received a request — which the Shpilbergs had not executed — to have the couple’s mail forwarded to their former Queens address.
An investigation was commenced by the Port Authority Police Department and the Postal Service which allegedly uncovered that between January 2007 and June 2008 various unauthorized credit card accounts were opened either in the name of Katia Tseitlin or Yaniv Shpilberg and which listed the Saunders Street address as the accounts’ billing and mailing address. The outstanding balances on the accounts — which range from a low of $8,000 to more than $30,000 — total nearly $70,000, and allegedly include the purchase of a number of airline tickets in the names of the defendants Hernandez and Landaverde and the one dollar fees for the change of address requests.
In addition, it is alleged that the name “Rhina Pagan” was added as an authorized user on the American Express account bearing the name Katia Tseitlin.
On Thursday, June 25, a court-authorized search warrant was executed on the Saunders Street apartment. Among the items allegedly seized were numerous credit cards bearing the names and forged signatures of Katia Tseitlin, Katha Shpilberg and Yaniv Shpilberg, as well as forged New York State identification cards bearing photographs of the defendant Landaverde with the names and purported signatures of Katia A. Tseitlin and Rhina Pagan. Also allegedly recovered was mail addressed to the Shpilbergs and numerous charge receipts for items purchased using the unauthorized accounts.
At the time of their arrests, Landaverde allegedly admitted to executing the Postal Service change of addresses and signing the Shpilbergs’ names, as well as having applied for credit cards in the names of the Shpilbergs and using the cards to make purchases. Hernandez allegedly admitted that she knew that credit cards in the name of Katia Tseitlin had been applied for and were being used, and that minimal payments were being made on the cards and that the balances on the cards were not going to be paid in full.