Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Shahab Khan was sentenced to three-and-a-half to seven years in prison for stealing more than $40,000 through apartment rental and investment scams.

District Attorney Katz said: “The defendant victimized people in his own community. These were hard-working people looking for a place to call home or trying to get ahead and he took advantage and exploited them. For many of the victims, the rental deposit they gave to the defendant was everything they had. Fortunately, we were able to secure restitution for the victims and the defendant will serve time in prison.”

Khan, 44, of 127^th Street in Richmond Hill, pleaded guilty on October 7, 2022, to grand larceny in the third degree and scheme to defraud in the first degree. Queens Supreme Court Justice Gary Miret sentenced him on Monday to three-and-a-half to seven years in prison. As part of his sentence, he has paid $40,175.00 in full restitution to his victims.

Khan also pleaded guilty on October 7, 2022, to attempted grand larceny in the second degree in an unrelated case. He was charged with renting eight box trucks from Enterprise, each valued at more than $50,000, using stolen credit cards and checks from closed accounts. He then re-rented the trucks to unsuspecting customers for as much as $3,000 a week. He never returned the trucks to Enterprise. He was sentenced to two to four years in prison to be served concurrently with the other sentence.

According to the charges:

• Between December 2017 and August 2018, Khan advertised his family home’s newly renovated basement for rent on websites such as Craigslist.com and Apartments.com. After showing the apartment, Khan requested cash from each victim to purportedly cover rent and security deposits.
• The victims turned over between $1,725 to $3,600. In exchange, Khan provided receipts and leases with specific move-in dates. On several occasions, Khan accepted deposits from more than one victim on the same day, with the same move-in date. On or near each promised move-in date, Khan delayed each victim’s move with various excuses.
• Khan never permitted anyone to move into the apartment. He offered various excuses or completely cut off communication with the would-be renters. Victims were left with accrued storage and moving truck fees, suspended or closed bank accounts from depositing the bad checks that defendant gave as a “refund” from his own closed bank accounts, and often with no money to secure another rental apartment.
• Khan also scammed a Queens couple out of $9,600 by promising to use the money to fund a real estate closing transaction, which would guarantee returns that would triple or quadruple their “investment” within a matter of weeks. Instead, when the victims demanded refunds or payouts after months of broken promises and delays, the defendant provided bad “refund” checks from his various bank accounts – which were closed.

Detective Thomas Nelan of the Queens County District Attorney’s Detective Bureau investigated the apartment rental and investment scams under the supervision of Sergeant Patrick Dolan while Detective Hugh Dorsey of the District Attorney’s Detective Bureau investigated the Enterprise rental truck scam under the supervision of Sergeant Ronald Georg, and under the overall supervision of Deputy Chief Investigator Daniel O’Brien.

Assistant District Attorney Myongjae M. Yi, Section Chief of the District Attorney’s Major Economic Crimes Bureau, prosecuted the case while serving in the Housing and Worker Protection Bureau, with the assistance of Paralegal Ericka Loperena-Hunter, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys William Jorgenson, Bureau Chief, Christina Hanophy, Deputy Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Gerard Brave.