MIDTOWN — A pair of real estate scammers collected $60,000 worth of upfront rents and security deposits using bogus ads on websites like Craigslist to defraud more than 20 Manhattan apartment hunters, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Matthew Wada, 36, and Jennifer York, 27, were indicted on grand larceny charges after running the scam from October 2013 to March 2014 using apartments in Midtown, Chelsea, Greenwich Village and the East Village they gained access to as short-term stays, according to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.
“Prospective renters lost thousands of dollars in this alleged scheme, which left several of them temporarily homeless,” Vance said. “Many of the victims were young, first-time New Yorkers who believed they had signed a legitimate lease only to find out when attempting to move in that their new apartment was already occupied.”
Wada and York found apartments advertised on Craiglist and NYHabitat.com for vacation or short-term stays and then reposted them as available for a long-term lease, prosecutors said.
Wada falsely told victims he was the apartments' landlord and got them to pay an average of about $2,200 to sign a fake lease, according to the Manhattan DA.
In some cases, multiple people signed leases for the same apartment, the DA’s Office added.
The scammed renters would then try to move into the apartment only to find out it was already occupied.
Wada and York used aliases and would disappear by the time people realized what happened, according to the DA.
Investigators arrested Wada at John F. Kennedy Airport on May 24 on a flight back to the city, prosecutors said.
“How many counts [am I being arrested for]?” Wada asked a detective after they picked him up at JFK, to court documents said.
York was arrested in the East Village on Aug. 1.
Wada admitted to investigators on June 2 to scamming about six people and working with York, starting with an apartment at East 45th Street and 2nd Avenue, according to the court papers.
He is being held on $100,000 bail and is due back in court on Sept. 19.
York was released on $5,000 bail and was due back in court Tuesday.
Their lawyers did not return calls for comment.
