About two dozen Chinese immigrant families in Bay Ridge are facing a housing fraud nightmare. A few days ago, condos you thought you bought from a developer were in danger of being evicted. But it turned out he couldn’t afford to sell them. new york Paste Developer Xihui Wu reports that it has built a 25-unit building at 345 Ovington Avenue. In the year He began selling units in 2012 — some buyers paid $100,000 to $460,000 in cash and checks — without obtaining permits from the state to do so. According to the charges, In 2018, Wu defaulted on his mortgage and owed more than $5 million to lender Maxim Credit Group. Then the residents disappeared with 4 million dollars of their money.

The cheat, as it often goes, is from within. Documented that Wu used his position in Brooklyn’s Chinatown community to gain the trust of the families, some of whom spoke little English and were unfamiliar with property law. Wu told Doc that he knew a buyer for seven years before paying a $200,000 deposit. Another, Jianli Chen, said, “As a new immigrant from China, I don’t know the normal process of buying property here.” Wu paid $345,000. The residents won judgments against Wu for the deposits they paid, but they are unlikely to see that money.

After the recent intervention of local legislators, their situation is still dangerous, but less so. Brooklyn paper A foreclosure bid that could have forced their family out of their home has been temporarily halted after three of the former residents filed an involuntary-bankruptcy claim against Wu’s LLC. The families’ attorney, Edward Cuccia, said the new mortgage holder is willing to negotiate to keep the residents in their homes, which is good news. His family bought themselves a little more time, but now they’re still worth millions. As Cuccia puts it of Brooklyn paper: “Dressed in beautiful clothes, he turned around, can you believe him!” You see someone who built a building, you think it’s real. Why do you suspect it isn’t?”