BAYSIDE — A Bayside resident has been charged with attempting to profit from the sale of three Manhattan properties he did not own and had no right to put on the market, the Queens district attorney’s office said.
Kook Hee Nam, who also goes by the name David Nam, is being held without bail and faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the scam, the DA’s office said.
The DA’s office alleges that Nam spent a little over a year beginning in October 2009 setting up a plot in which he approached Jae Kun Jeung and offered to sell him three commercial properties located on Seventh Ave. in Manhattan for a total of $6.5 million. The properties belong to Nan Su Kim, who never gave Nam permission to sell them, the DA’s office said.
In April 2010 Nam allegedly presented Jeung with an option agreement to purchase the properties, though Kim’s signature on it had been forged, the DA said. In November, Jeung traveled to Nam’s home at 230-11 57th Road in Bayside and delivered a down payment of approximately $1.6 million, but became suspicious when Nam repeatedly failed to present proof of his authority to sell the properties, the DA said.
Nam is charged with grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, forgery and three counts of identity theft, the DA said.
