Photo Courtesy of the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office
Hills at the closing, which was recorded by FBI agents.
By Michael V. Cusenza
An attorney admitted to practice in New York since 2011 has been convicted in Brooklyn of attempting to influence the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York to remove a lien on her client’s four Queens real estate properties by misrepresenting that the properties would be sold and that the client—the attorney’s aunt—would not receive any proceeds from the sale, federal prosecutors recently announced.
Lydia Hills, 38, of Brooklyn, was found guilty by a federal jury of obstructing an official proceeding and conspiring to do the same, following a three-day trial.
According to prosecutors, Hills client, her aunt Faith Esimai, was convicted in 2010 in federal court in the SDNY of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. Esimai was sentenced to 70 months’ imprisonment and ordered to pay more than $4.9 million in restitution and more than $13.5 million in forfeiture. The SDNY U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a lien against four properties in Queens Village, Hollis, St. Albans, and Arverne to prevent Esimai from selling the properties without first satisfying the judgment and forfeiture order.
Hills, who was also a licensed as a real estate broker, subsequently represented Esimai in a mortgage “short sale” of the four properties. In a short sale, the mortgage holder can pay off the mortgage with the proceeds of the short sale, but the mortgager does not receive any of the proceeds, federal officials noted. During March and April 2016, Hills conspired with Esimai to sell the four properties in a transaction where the client would receive the sales proceeds in a hidden cash transaction and conceal it from the SDNY U.S. Attorney’s Office, which was entitled to the proceeds to partially satisfy the judgment and forfeiture order.
On March 15, 2016, Hills faxed a letter to the SDNY U.S. Attorney’s Office requesting that the lien be released in order to proceed with the sale, falsely representing that Esimai would not receive any financial benefit from the short sale. However, on April 6, 2016, Hills, Esimai and the buyer met at the closing, and the buyer gave Hills a bag containing $33,100 in cash, representing $25,000 for one property and Hills’ broker fee of $8,100. At the closing, which was recorded by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, Hills told the buyer with regard to her client, “I’m afraid. I’m an attorney… I don’t want her to say something… The wrong thing on the phone one day and it’s being recorded and I’m screwed.”
Esimai was Hills’ codefendant until the judge found she was not competent to stand trial, a Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman told The Forum.
“When the government imposes a restitution and forfeiture agreement in response to a crime that’s been committed, the best course of action is to pay up. In this case, Lydia Hills masterminded a scheme so her client could skirt the system,” said FBI-NY Assistant Director-in-Charge Bill Sweeney.
When sentenced, Hills faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment on each count of the indictment.
