Disbarred attorney Anyekache Hercules was sentenced Friday in Queens Supreme Court to one-and-a-half to three years in prison for her role in a deed theft crew that stole homes in St. Albans and Jamaica that were owned by elderly or disabled Southeast Queens residents or their families.
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that Hercules assisted the leader of the crew, Marcus Wilcher, and his associates in stealing and selling three homes, which yielded more than $1 million in illegal profits. Hercules pleaded guilty in May to Scheme to Defraud in the first degree.
“Deed theft schemes target vulnerable communities and steal families’ most valuable assets,” James said. “Anyekache Hercules used her knowledge of the law to scam and steal from those in her community rather than protect them.”
Hercules and Wilcher’s crew, which included former mortgage broker Stacie Saunders and fellow co-conspirators Jerry Currin and Dean Lloyd, targeted homes owned by elderly or otherwise vulnerable owners or estates that were in distressed condition. Wilcher located properties in poor or run-down condition with absentee owners. Hercules created forged legal documents used to steal and sell the homes.
As she was disbarred and could not practice law in New York, she fraudulently stole the identity of a practicing attorney to use on legal documents. Saunders would market the homes to investors at prices significantly below the market rate for quick sales. Wilcher and Saunders then found people to impersonate the owners of the properties at contract signings and closings.
After the sales were finalized, the defendants opened bank accounts in the names of the homes’ real owners using forged divers’ licenses and social security cards. Wilcher, Hercules, and their co-conspirators used these bank accounts and other identities and LLCs they controlled to funnel more than $1 million in proceeds for themselves.
Wilcher was convicted of grand larceny and sentenced in July to three to nine years in prison for stealing five homes in Southeast Queens. Currin and Lloyd pleaded guilty to felony counts of offering a false instrument for filing and are awaiting sentencing. Saunders is currently awaiting trial.
As part of her ongoing efforts to combat deed theft fraud, the Attorney General’s Office launched her Protect Our Homes initiative in January 2020 and announced the formation of an interagency law enforcement task force to respond to housing-related fraudsters like Hercules.
“She and her associate took advantage of elderly and vulnerable homeowners with their crimes, but today, we are making them pay for the harm they caused,” James said. “We will continue to go after anyone who commits these horrible and heartless crimes.”
