Scam artist Queens clan ran ‘one-family crime spree,’ stole dead man’s $700,000 house: D.A.
A family of Queens scammers used a fake will to take a dead man’s house, and stole the identities of at least 20 children to score COVID relief funds and tax refund money, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The ghoulish plot to steal Russell Butler’s $700,000 Laurelton home started sometime after his death on Nov. 10, 2010.
The retired Port Authority accountant had no children and left no will, but he did leave personal documents behind in his vacant single-family home on 225th St. near 137th Ave.
By 2014, Stephanie Bailey, 50, moved her family in, prosecutors said. Neighbors started noticing construction and renovations over the next two years, which led to several Department of Buildings complaints, public records show.
In 2017, Bailey’s daughter, Chianti Bailey, 31, submitted a bogus will in Bronx Surrogates Court, claiming to be Butler’s great-granddaughter and his sole beneficiary.
That will was accepted the next year, and in 2020, Chianti Bailey became the home’s owner — and then took out a $200,000 mortgage against it.
She also claimed nearly $95,000 in unclaimed funds owed to Butler’s estate.
Stephanie Bailey was busy over those years as well — inventing a fake landlord so she can claim she was renting Butler’s house, all to steal nearly $100,000 in Section 8 government housing assistance, prosecutors allege.
A few years after his death, Butler’s three nephews — his actual descendants — learned that people were living in his house without permission, according to a criminal complaint.
A state Department of Finance investigator started digging, and spoke to Chianti Bailey’s grandmother, who verified that she wasn’t Butler’s daughter, and had no idea who he was.
The Bailey family had several other scams going, prosecutors said, including tax fraud and COVID relief schemes.
Stephanie Bailey’s sister, Latonya Bailey Dostaly, 45, worked as a job opportunity specialist for the city Human Resources Authority — which provided opportunity for more crime, prosecutors allege.
She used the HRA’s electronic files to steal the IDs of more than 20 children, which she and her clan used to file fake tax returns and seek COVID stimulus payments. They managed to steal more than $15,000 in tax return money and $27,000 in COVID cash, and tried to steal tens of thousands of dollars more, according to a criminal complaint.
The Bailey family also managed to steal more than $123,000 through bogus unemployment claims under nine different names, and tried to steal another $97,000 in unemployment money, prosecutors said.
Queens D.A. Melinda Katz referred to their alleged schemes as a “one-family crime spree.”
“These defendants used virtually every trick in the book to pull off an assortment of illegal scams over more than a decade,” she said.
Stephanie Bailey was arrested Monday, and her sister was busted on April 26. Both were arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on multiple counts of grand larceny, identity theft and other charges, and were released without having to post cash or bond.
Latonya Bailey Dostaly declined comment when contacted by phone Wednesday night. Attempts to reach Stephanie Bailey were unsuccessful.
Chianti Bailey remained at large on Wednesday.
