NYC Indian Real Estate Agent Reshmi Maharaj Sentenced to Prison for Scamming Prospective Home Buyers


August 30, 2019 - Queens, NYC Indian Realtor Reshmi Maharaj (53), has been sentenced to up to six years in prison for stealing nearly $600,000 in payments from prospective homeowners for the purported “short sale” of several Queens and Brooklyn properties in 2015.

Conviction of Reshmi Maharaj
Indian real estate agent Reshmi Maharaj was convicted on August 12, 2019 following a four week bench trial on the charges of: According to the trial testimony:
....beginning in December 2014, Maharaj accepted a number of deposits, totaling $55,500, from a prospective buyer for the purchase of a home on Lefferts Boulevard in Richmond Hill, Queens. In April 2015, a second prospective buyer gave Maharaj four checks, totaling $34,500, for a home she presented as a “short sale”on Sutter Avenue in South Ozone Park, Queens.This same buyer then paid Maharaj an additional lump sum of$130,000 in order to secure the purchase of the property. Maharaj repeated this scam several more times, collecting deposits, totaling $176,200, for a home on 122 Street in Jamaica and for “short-sale” home purchases on Murdock Avenue in Queens Village and on Avenue K in Brooklyn, as well as for closing costs. In 2016, Maharaj again pocketed a total of $199,000 from a third prospective buyer, who was interested in buying a property on 115 Street in Richmond Hill.

Despite having paid large sums of money to Maharaj, the victims were never allowed to move into the homes. Instead, Maharaj spent the $594,700 in funds she had received on such things as trips to a local casino and for travel-related vacation expenses (including airfare, hotels and entertainment), as well as making sizeable cash withdrawals while in Trinidad and Tobago and for other personal expenses.
NYC Indian realtor Reshmi Maharaj was sentenced to two to six years in prison by Queens Supreme Court Justice Daniel Lewis on August 30, 2019.
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