Mailings, court and police documents offer clues in Colonial Village housing scam
Court records and police documents, as well as mail left behind at the management office of the Colonial Village apartments in Columbus, offer more insight into how hundreds of Haitian refugees ended up in unsafe apartments there with no heat or hot water.
The Columbus Division of Police has opened an embezzlement case in which the East Side complex’s owner is named as the victim, but it is unclear if authorities have opened a human trafficking case over the transfer of the asylum seekers from Florida to Columbus.
Separately, Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein has sought to name the property’s owner, court-appointed receiver and former management company as defendants in a long-running civil case regarding code violations at the property.
Some of the more than 850 Haitian asylum seekers — including at least 248 children — told The Dispatch and authorities that they fell victim to a scam to rent cold, unsafe Columbus apartments, many of which lack official rental agreements with the management company.
The asylum seekers say a network of traffickers who brought them to Columbus from Florida provided the residents with fraudulent rental contracts to stay at the complex, which has been under court-appointed receivership since early 2022. The rental agreements listed “Colonial Village Apartments” as the landlord, but the scammers collected the cash rent for those units until recently, according to residents.
Soon after city officials discovered the Haitian residents’ situation in October, Columbus police documents indicate they opened an embezzlement case, naming an employee of the management company — Hayes Gibson Property Services — as a possible suspect for renting out supposedly unoccupied apartments, which in some cases had been condemned for city code violations and boarded up.
The individual, Sylvia Sherman, has not been criminally charged.
City Attorney Zach Klein's office alleges in documents filed in a Franklin County Common Pleas Court civil suit that Sherman may have been collecting up to $40,000 per month in rent from the units that were illegally leased.
Court documents indicate Sherman had been the property manager since around 2010 — surviving three changes in ownership and multiple property management companies at the complex.
The owner and receiver banned Sherman and Hayes Gibson Property Services from the premises in October and hired another management firm, Texas-based Capstone Real Estate Services, according to Klein's office.
More: Over 850 Haitian scam victims struggle in cold, unsafe Columbus apartments
Sherman did not immediately respond to requests for comment by email and social media, and Hayes Gibson representatives have not responded to The Dispatch’s requests for comment.
Mail left behind at the Colonial Village Apartments' management office, photos of which were shared with The Dispatch by an aid provider assisting the Haitian victims, may offer additional clues into the case.
The person who took the photos, who asked not to be named to avoid jeopardizing their relationship with city officials, said the management office was left a mess, with financial and other documents strewn across desks as if the manager had “just walked away.”
Piles of unpaid utility bills for many of the Haitians’ apartments had been delivered to the management office address, but addressed to “JB Tax Multi Services LLC," the photos show.
JB Tax Multi Services LLC, as well as a company named JB Income Tax & Multiservices LLC, were both registered in Florida by a Haitian American named Boges Jeanbaptiste, though the companies are currently listed as “inactive.”
Haitian residents at Colonial Village have named a man, by the name of Jeanbaptiste, along with several other individuals, as among the people who brought them to Ohio with promises of affordable housing.
Reached by phone on Monday, Jeanbaptiste said he had not been involved with JB Tax Multi Services “for a while,” and then hung up.
Law enforcement authorities have been tight-lipped about the criminal investigation.
Columbus police's Economic Crimes Unit and Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force took initial statements from some residents at Colonial Village, according to Klein’s office. The police provided The Dispatch a report for the embezzlement case, but a spokesperson refused to say whether they have opened a human trafficking case and could not provide a case number.
A spokesperson for the FBI Cincinnati office, Todd Lindgren, said he was not aware of any FBI involvement in the case. Steve Irwin, a spokesperson for Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, said that the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation has not been invited by local authorities to investigate beyond BCI’s regular participation as a member of the trafficking task force that took initial statements.
More: After 850 Haitians fell victim to housing scam, city attorney files legal case
Meanwhile, Klein has sought to name the complex’s owner, court-appointed receiver and management company as defendants in a long-running environmental health case.
After years of code violations for issues ranging from bed bugs to rodents, water and fire damage, broken windows, and unsecured vacant units, Colonial Village was put under court-appointed receivership in early 2022. Columbus developer Robert J. Weiler Sr. served as receiver until April, when Kenneth Latz, senior managing director of Riveron ETS LLC, took over.
Klein’s office filed a motion last week to name the property’s mortgage holder — a Connecticut-based firm name EFM Transfer Agent LLC — Latz and Hayes Gibson as defendants in a long-running environmental health case regarding code violations at the property. It is seeking to hold them in contempt of a court order mandating improvements in safety, security and living conditions at the complex.
An attorney for the lender EFM previously told The Dispatch the lender was "wholly innocent" in the matter.
On Tuesday, the city filed a motion to hold the receivership group responsible for covering the cost of relocating residents and families to other temporary housing. To date, property leadership has declined to cover the costs associated with relocation, according to Klein.
More: Here's how to help the Haitian housing scam victims in Columbus
Last week, city and county officials partnered with local health and human service organizations to host a resource fair for the Haitian residents at the Barnett Community Center, near the housing complex. Franklin County Jobs and Family Services, the Mid-Ohio Food Collective, Columbus Public Health, Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center, the Mount Carmel Health System, the Legal Aid Society of Columbus, Community Refugee and Immigration Services, and others provided assistance.
Some families with infants under 1 year of age have begun to be relocated to temporary facilities, using city funds left over from Latitude Five25 relocations last year, according to Hannah Jones, deputy director for community development at the city’s Department of Development.
Peter Gill covers immigration, New American communities and religion for the Dispatch in partnership with Report for America. You can support work like his with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America at:bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.
pgill@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Mailings, documents offer clues in Colonial Village housing scam
