Posted on 12/03/2008 12:55:22 AM PST by thecodont
In one of the biggest heists in American history, the Daily News "stole" the $2 billion Empire State Building.
And it wasn't that hard.
The News swiped the 102-story Art Deco skyscraper by drawing up a batch of bogus documents, making a fake notary stamp and filing paperwork with the city to transfer the deed to the property.
Some of the information was laughable: Original "King Kong" star Fay Wray is listed as a witness and the notary shared a name with bank robber Willie Sutton.
The massive ripoff illustrates a gaping loophole in the city's system for recording deeds, mortgages and other transactions.
The loophole: The system - run by the office of the city register - doesn't require clerks to verify the information.
[...]
Right... like not verifying a Presidential candidate meets the Constitutional requirements to hold the office.
Here's a good graphic representation of how easy it is to steal a building--now imagine that instead of a building, it's a whole country.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
I forget the quote, and I only think it was Jefferson, but someone said something like, 'Our form of government can only work with an honest people' .. or words to that affect.
Two recent news articles illustrate how immoral America (may ) be.
A guy found $10,000 in a store and returned it and two people who taught abstinence didn't even kiss untill they married.
Both events had every 5' 3" tight skirted info babe creaming how odd and wonderful these people are.
Wait until the deed is challenged in court.
change "honest" to "religious" and you have the basic quote. It was John Adams.
A guy recently found my money clip with 600 dollars in it outside a blockbuster and just gave it to the staff. I asked them to get his phone number when he came back in (he left no i.d.). I gave the staff guy 20 buck for not keeping it himself. Sometimes the honesty surprises you in the most unlikely places.
Thank you.
This is truly a stupid article. You think those bureaucrats in the county registrar’s office are slow now. Just wait till they start verifying deeds, however, they are supposed to do that. Right now in some NY counties deeds are taking 9 months to register. The property owners are responsible for seeing to it that their property is not falsely conveyed. This will usually take place when the property is sold or encumbered by a mortgage. At that time a title search takes place, and the fraud described by the Daily News will easily be detected. All buyers and sellers at a closing are now required to produce photo id, driver’s licenses, before title is transferred. Frauds do take place when property owners are deceased and there is no estate or the estate is embroiled in litigation. Howeer, these cases are relatively rare. Thank you Daily News for providing another bogus headline grabbing story.
Yeah, it’s just that simple to “steal” real estate.
As if there isn’t one shady real estate lawyer who never thought of this and is now awash in ill-gotten properties that no one can do anything about.
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