Queens, NY– Wagner Recio was sentenced by Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz on Tuesday for filing fraudulent paperwork to claim full ownership of a Queens Village home that actually belonged to his niece, who had inherited half from her father. The defendant, Recio, obtained a mortgage against the property in 2021 and kept the financial proceeds for himself, leading to the legal proceedings.
District Attorney Katz expressed that Recio falsified documents to wrongfully claim an interest in a property that rightfully belonged to his niece. The sentencing followed an investigation by the office’s Housing and Worker Protection Bureau, resulting in criminal charges against Recio and restitution to the victim.
Recio, a 52-year-old resident of Butler Boulevard in Elmont, had pleaded guilty in December 2022 to offering a false instrument for filing. As part of the plea agreement, Recio agreed to nullify the deed, leading to the sale of the house and the subsequent reimbursement of the proceeds to his niece. Queens Supreme Court Justice Judge Toni M. Cimino handed down a conditional discharge to Recio.