An American doctor was shocked after realising the land he had owned for over 20 years had been 'sold' to property builders by a fraudster in South Africa.
Dr Daniel Kenigsberg was the owner of a plot of land next to his childhood home in Fairfield, Connecticut. He purchased the land in 1991 and became the sole owner following the death of his brother in 2011.
In 2023, he returned home and was devastated to discover that a million-dollar home had been built on his land, without his knowledge.
During his two decades of ownership, the New York doctor had turned down numerous offers to buy the land, as he planned to pass down to future generations in his family.
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However, when returning to his hometown in 2023 to see a close friend, Dr Kenigsberg was baffled to see a four-bedroomed house, valued at £1.2m, on his land.
It emerged that developers Sky Top Partners LLC had purchased the land for around $350,000 (£270,000) from someone in South Africa who was pretending to be Dr Kenigsberg, and the landowner was understandably fuming.
Consumer protection lawyer Kevin Kneupper suggested on TikTok that the fraudster had likely forged his name and signed it in a 'power of attorney', which is the right to sign legal documents on someone's behalf.
He said: "It's really easy to go find who owns land. If you've never done searches on this, in most counties, you can actually just go, it depends on your state.
"But in many places, you just search online, they'll have databases, so they could find out real easily who's the actual owner and then just pretend to be him."
It is reported by Patch that the scammer registered an address in Johannesburg and had made a fake passport in his name, which had an incorrect birthday and photo, which apparently was more than enough to convince the property builders that they had the right guy.
Dr Kenigsberg took the property builders to court in the summer of 2023, which kickstarted a legal battle than lasted for almost a year before finally coming to its conclusion in April 2024.
Dr Kenigsberg, who now lives in Long Island, agreed to settle, and while specific terms of the settlement have not been released to the public, it is understood that he received a payout. The fraud case was initially investigated by the Fairfield Police Department, but later turned it over to the FBI, where it reportedly remains unsolved.
Although Sky Top Partners had fallen victim to the scam from South Africa that likely cost them thousands of dollars in legal fees and the settlement, there was a happy end to the story for them, when the property was sold last year for $1.45m (£1.17m).
The LADbible Team