You are reading

Queens DA Launches Bureau Targeting Predatory Lenders and Housing Scammers

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, (Twitter)

June 3, 2020 By Christian Murray

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz has established a new bureau tasked with investigating and prosecuting predatory lenders, housing scammers and contractors who fail to pay their employees prevailing wage.

The new unit, called the Housing and Worker Protection Bureau, will work with other agencies to prosecute con artists and unfair employers.

“Far too often, people are swindled into giving away their property. Unscrupulous criminals often target elderly or vulnerable people in real estate scams convincing them to sign on a dotted line that literally gives away their home,” Katz said in a statement. “This new bureau will investigate those crimes.”

The new bureau will not only focus on prosecuting these crimes but also educating the community on how to avoid being victims.

The unit will also target contractors who take money-saving shortcuts at the expense of worker safety; employers who skim wages from their employees; and those who refuse to pay the prevailing wage.

The bureau will be run by William Jorgenson, a career prosecutor who over the course of three decades has handled homicide and narcotics trials, insurance-fraud investigations and financial crimes.

email the author: news@queenspost.com
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.


The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Suspect wanted for shoving E train rider onto the tracks at Sutphin Boulevard station in Jamaica: NYPD

Police from the 103rd Precinct in Jamaica and Transit District 20 are looking for a suspect who shoved an E train rider onto the tracks at the Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue–JFK Airport subway station on Thursday morning.

The 39-year-old victim was standing on the southbound platform at around 4:40 a.m. when a stranger approached him and pushed him onto the track bed below in an unprovoked attack, police said Friday. The suspect fled the station onto Sutphin Boulevard and ran off in an unknown direction. EMS responded to the scene and transported the injured man to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition.

Bellerose man arrested in fatal collision that killed his neighbor on Jericho Turnpike in December: NYPD

A Bellerose man was arrested and booked at the 105th Precinct in Queens Village on Tuesday, May 20, five months after he struck and killed his 78-year-old neighbor with his vehicle at the intersection of Jericho Turnpike and 91st Avenue.

The fatal collision occurred just after 6:40 p.m. on Saturday, December 14, 2024, as Benjamin Jean-Baptiste, 39, of Ontario Road, was behind the wheel of a 2010 Dodge Ram pickup truck traveling northbound on 91st Avenue.

Robbery suspect flees courthouse mid-trial, convicted of holding woman at knifepoint in Flushing: DA

A Flushing fugitive failed to return to court before trial and was convicted in absentia on Monday for a violent armed robbery of a young woman at her Parsons Boulevard apartment with two accomplices in 2022.

Michael Fan, 25, of Farrington Street, was found guilty of multiple burglary and robbery counts and an unlawful imprisonment charge before Queens Supreme Court Justice Gary Miret on May 19.