By Connor Adams Sheets
A Flushing man has been charged with suming a number of false roles including attorney, accountant and banker in order to con a dozen victims out of more than $16 million worth of real estate, luxury items, cars and cash in a single day, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown’s office said Friday.
Matthew McEntee, 50, and his alleged accomplice Mariwa M. Mora, 45, also of Flushing, are facing charges of grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, criminal possession of a forged instrument and scheme to defraud, the DA said.They each face up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the charges.
“It’s a very egregious example [of fraud],” said Helen Peterson, a spokeswoman for the DA. “It was the amount of money in the space of time.”
The pair allegedly conned 12 property owners of assets, which include real estate properties in locations including Jamaica Estates, Woodside, Pennsylvania, California and Texas, at seven closings across Queens Feb. 27, according to the DA’s office, which disclosed the arrests Friday.
The duo also allegedly forged checks, which they then gave to victims in exchange for valuables they brought, the DA’s office said.
“In some instances, the defendants are alleged to have promised to double any money the victims brought to the closings, thereby duping the victims out of $310,000 in cash, as well as diamonds, gold, minks, cash,” Brown said in a statement.
The pair allegedly met their victims through an individual who was not arrested, who told them McEntee was an investor interested in purchasing properties for his corporations Clarity Corporate Trust and Conveyance Corporate Trust, according to the DA’s office.
When he met the victims, McEntee either introduced himself as an attorney, an accountant or a banker, the DA’s office said, and introduced Mora, who assisted him with contractual documents, as his fiance or wife.
The closings included an $800,000 Woodside two-family home; a $1.6 million mixed-use, multi-floor Woodside building; a $2 million mixed-use, multi-floor Jamaica Estates building; a $700,000 Nassau County home; a $3 million Oyster Bay, L.I., one-family house; four Fort Lee, N.J., homes; one Milford, Penn., home; vacant lots in Texas and Pennsylvania; a $653,000 house with an adjacent lot; and a $2.2 million parcel of land in California, the DA’s office said.
McEntee’s bail was set at $500,000 and Mora’s was set at $50,000.
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
