Real Estate Developers Accused Of $27 Million Fraud

Two individuals, purporting to be working through a Manhattan real estate development company, have been arrested in connection with an elaborate scheme to defraud approximately 70 individuals of over $27 million. Working through The Kingsland Group Inc. and related entities, the duo allegedly fraudulently induced approximately 70 individuals to loan them, in the aggregate, over $27 million, purportedly to fund the renovation of approximately 16 multi-family apartment buildings located in upper Manhattan, according to federal prosecutors. As part of the fraud, Hershkowitz and Woolf-Turk allegedly falsely represented that the investor victims would hold, as collateral for the loans, interests in bona fide first mortgages in the various properties in which they thought they were investing. In fact, the investor victims did not hold recorded, first mortgages in the properties.