Thomas MacMillan Photo
Thelma Taylor’s rental house is crumbling around her. A federal indictment may reveal the reason: Money that could have gone into repairs was allegedly siphoned off by one mortgage fraudster, who then handed the house off to another.
In the four years that Taylor (pictured) has lived at 147 Lloyd St., she’s had to replace the stove twice at her own expense. A leaking refrigerator is destroying her kitchen floor. She’s battled squirrels and bedbugs. And her sister has fallen through the back porch, a rotted structure that was held up only by five-gallon buckets.
Her problematic home is one one of three properties that showed up two weeks ago in a federal grand jury’s indictment of Ronald Hutchison and Jacques Kelly. Click here to read it.
The indictment alleges that the pair, who live in two different towns in New York, took part in a mortgage fraud conspiracy involving falsified loan applications, “fictitious leases,” and fake down payments. Hutchison and Kelly received “millions of dollars” by means of the conspiracy, the indictment states.
The full details of the alleged scheme have not yet come to light. But land records and other federal indictments show connections between Hutchison and Kelly and two other federal investigations of alleged New Haven mortgage fraud conspiracies — one headed by a man named Syed Babar, the other by Menachem Yosef “Joseph” Levitin.
The Babar investigation has been wrapping up in Hartford, with the sentencing of white-collar participants in the scheme. Former New Haven Alderman and state legislator Morris Olmer was among those found guilty. David Avigdor, a New Haven rabbi who was accused in the scheme, was let off by a hung jury but is due to be retried in November.
Although the Levitin investigation has yet to hit the courtroom, the indictment of Hutchison and Kelly indicates that feds are gathering evidence and have turned their attention to that case with the closure of the Babar probe.
Transactions involving the three houses in the Hutchison/Kelly indictment — 147 Lloyd St., 186 James St., 522 Elm St. — feature a number of names familiar from recent appearances in federal courtrooms, on federal indictments and soon, from federal prison. All signs indicate the feds are zeroing in on Levitin.
Contacted by phone, Levitin’s attorney, Willie Dow, had only this to say: “I’ve found over the years that it is not in my client’s best interest to defend him on the front page of the newspaper.”
Kelly’s lawyer, Stamford attorney Bruce Koffsky, said he had no comment as he was only appointed counsel a week ago.
Hutchison’s lawyer, New York-based Ikiesha T. Al-Shabazz, could not be reached for comment.
147 Lloyd
Taylor, who’s 66, summed up her experience of four years at 147 Lloyd in two words: “Like hell.”
She spoke in her second-floor apartment at the yellow duplex recently. Her grandson slept on a couch nearby and Will Smith’s “I, Robot” played quietly on a TV as Taylor listed her gripes, which she said the landlord has ignored.
“My sister fell through the porch,” she said. “The ceiling fell down over the sink.” Sewage has backed up, there’s been a gas leak, she said. “I’m just sick of it.”
Stepping into the bathroom, Taylor pointed out the toilet that runs constantly. Her nephew showed how the shower faucet comes off in your hand and has to be held in place during a shower.
“These landlords want your money and don’t want to do nothing,” Taylor said.
Al Taylor, the nephew, pointed out where his aunt had paid to fix missing front step, and where she paid $1,500 to repair the back porch after her sister fell through and hurt her ankle. Then he led the way to the basement, where there was standing water, a soggy mattress and a foul stench. He said he’s worried that mold and mildew from the basement are exacerbating his aunt’s asthma. “All that’s seeping upstairs.”
A leaking refrigerator is destroying the kitchen floor.
Livable City Initiative case histories show the house was inspected in 2010 for a host of complaints, including bedbugs, ticks, bad sewage, and a flooding basement. Other LCI complaints between 2007 and 2010 include no heat, animals living in the wall and someone living in the basement, trash and debris, and electrical problems.
A letter from inspector Mark Vitolo to the landlord lists 35 violations found during a July 2010 inspection. The list includes a porch in danger of collapse, rotted floor boards in the first-floor kitchen, a bedbug infestation, mold and mildew, inadequate heating, and raw sewage in the cellar. The complaint was closed in February of this year.
Thelma Taylor said she pays her rent each month by taking a check to a second floor office at 419 Whalley Ave. That’s the same building where Babar’s crew signed their fraudulent mortgage deals with the help of Olmer and, allegedly, Avigdor.
A visit to the building found the only second-floor office that’s not a dentist or maxillofacial surgeon — Suite 202 — belongs to Levitin Management. A receptionist said the principal, Joseph Levitin, was not available to talk.
Feds have accused Levitin of fraudulently purchasing more than 50 homes in New Haven. He allegedly used “straw buyers” to bilk lenders out of cash for houses, which went into foreclosure, then used the money to purchase other houses that he and others now operate as rentals.
147 Lloyd St.
Could 147 Lloyd be one of those rentals?
Here’s how the house changed hands over the last four years, the time Taylor has lived there:
In May 2007, a woman named Shannon Smith sold the house to Jacques for $256,000. Olmer, the former state legislator who’s now headed to federal prison for five years, was the notary public who signed off on the deal. Jacques took out a mortgage for $238,500 on the house.
In August of 2008, the house went into foreclosure. It was purchased in January 2009 by a man who owns another property with Levitin.
186 James
186 James St.
Just a couple of blocks away at 186 James St., the connections with Levitin are even more pronounced. For one thing, the house is among 51 properties listed by feds as part of Levitin’s alleged fraud. Click here to see the list.
In 2003, the property was mortgaged by Marshall Asmar, the Waterbury man who’s headed to prison for over four years for his role in Babar’s mortgage fraud ring.
In January 2007, Asmar sold the house for $262,000 to Hutchison, who took out a mortgage for $185,600.
In January 2008, the house faced a foreclosure suit.
In September of that year, Hutchison sold the house to Levitin for $105,000. Levitin immediately quit-claimed it to a company called Tami Research and Development LLC, with offices at 419 Whalley Ave. Suite 202.
In December 2009, the house was quit-claimed to New Haven Investment Group LLC, with offices at 419 Whalley Ave. Suite 202.
In December 2010, LCI served Levitin with an order to remedy a number of violations — including properly installing the gas furnace, replacing missing wire connectors, and installing a furnace vent — and to cease and desist using the third floor as an illegal apartment.
522 Elm
Ron Hutchison bought 522 Elm, an ominous-looking nine-unit gray building, in 2007 for $670,000 from 522 Elm Street Associates LLC, a New York company. He took out a mortgage for $536,000, with documents witnessed by Levitin and a man named Jeffrey Weisman.
Just over a year later, the house was foreclosed on. It as purchased by a Bethany-based LLC that owns a number of properties in New Haven.
Meanwhile, Taylor remains living at 147 Lloyd. She said she was unaware of the details of any federal case against her former or current landlords, but wasn’t surprised to hear about it.