A Bay Ridge landlord who defrauded dozens of tenants has been found liable for fraud and ordered to pay out more than $4 million in restitution.
Xi Hui “Steven” Wu, the former owner of an apartment building at 345 Ovington Avenue, illegally “sold” condominiums to at least 20 families, according to court documents and Attorney General Letitia James. Wu never legally created a condominium and did not have the legal right to sell the units, rendering each sale illegitimate even as families paid large sums for down payments, monthly mortgage payments, and fake condo fees.
Though Wu collected roughly $5 million in payments, he was not paying the building’s mortgage, and it was eventually foreclosed upon, leaving dozens of tenants at risk of eviction and out hundreds of thousands of dollars…