The details are thin but they sure don’t smell right. The short form is that Sunny Sheu had his house stolen from him by fictive buyers who used forged documents. Judge Golia of Queens engaged in what appears to be highly questionable behavior in failing to reverse the sale. Sheu started investigating the judge, was told by policeman who specifically referred to information he had provided about Golia, and that if he didn’t drop it, he’d wind up dead. Sheu disregarded their warning and did wind up dead. The authorities are also refusing to honor requests for information regarding Sheu’s death made under New York’s Freedom of Information Act. This story has been publicized by Foreclosure Fraud and The Daily Bail and I hope it gets more traction.

First, the background, as reported in Black Star News:

Sheu’s ordeal began over 10 years ago when a bank representative knocked on his door and said he was there to inspect the house for its new owner. The problem was that Sheu had never sold the house. It turns out that someone had forged critical documents and used them to illegally sell the property. Sheu alerted all relevant authorities; including the police, the bank that held the mortgage, and the title insurer of the property. Eventually the parties involved in forging the documents were prosecuted, pleaded guilty to forgery, and went to jail. Sheu hoped that with all the evidence in his favor, the matter would be quickly resolved–it was actually only the beginning of his nightmare. But Centex Home Equity, the bank that held the original mortgage, acted as if the fraudulent sale had been legitimate, ignoring all the documentation submitted by Sheu regarding the fraud, including the police report he’d filed. Centex filed a lawsuit on December 12, 2001, against Sheu in State Supreme Court, in Queens County. The bank wanted a default judgment on the property and foreclosure, claiming that the “new owners” were delinquent on mortgage payments. In reality, of course, there was never any legal “new owner”. The Centex case against Sheu went before Judge Golia, in Queens County. Sheu said he was stunned when Judge Golia also ignored the obvious fact that the “sale” had been fraudulent, which would obviate the claim against him. Instead of immediately restoring Sheu’s rightful ownership, he said, Golia allowed the lawsuit to proceed, eventually leading to the foreclosure of Shue’s home. Worse yet, the judge let the case drag out for 10 years, with numerous postponements, in essence milking Sheu of all his resources. At some point, Sheu could no longer afford attorney fees and he had to represent himself. Clearly, simple discovery— examination of documents by the court- would have proven the fraud in the alleged property sale, but Golia never allowed this fundamental judicial procedure to take place, despite Sheu’s numerous appeals, he said. For 10 grueling years, Sheu said, he was consistently denied the opportunity to present evidentiary documentation proving that the fraud had taken place and that Centex had no right to foreclose on his home. Sheu’s home was first foreclosed on January 28, 2005 and Centex “bought” the property for $1,000 from Amy Cheng, a pseudonymous fraudster involved in the fictitious sale. “How can you buy property from someone who does not exist?” Sheu had asked me, when I first started writing about his case. Sheu also wrote Centex executive, Gerry King and New York State Chief Administrative Judge –now Chief Judge– Jonathan Lippman, complaining about Judge Golia’s conduct and accusing the judge of “discrimination” and “bias.” Sheu demanded that Golia recuse himself from the case; the judge refused. Sheu was persistent, writing to numerous elected public officials and filing an appeal against the foreclosure. Aware that he had notified various elected officials about what he claimed were the “biased” rulings, Sheu said, Judge Golia eventually reversed his own earlier decision and the initial foreclosure was rescinded, records showed. Still, the judge refused to restore ownership of the property to Sheu. Golia was so adamant to deprive him of justice, Sheu contended, that he came up with a remarkable decision. Golia now ruled that even though Sheu’s home had been illegally sold years earlier, since Centex had already paid off the mortgage, the bank now owned the property under a doctrine known as “Equitable Subrogation.” “How can equitable subrogation apply to stolen property?” Sheu said, in an interview with The Black Star News, referring to the fraudulent sale. “This means if I have a lot of money, like Centex, I can pay off anybody’s mortgage anywhere without their permission and then take possession of their home and kick them out?”

Sheu then began to investigate Judge Golia’s real estate holdings to see if they were consistent with his required public disclosures, on the belief that if he found improprieties, he could get Golia removed and get assigned to a new judge. Back to Black Star News:

According to Sheu, he discovered major discrepancies between Golia’s actual properties and the ones declared on his financial disclosure forms, including a million dollar beach house on Breezy Point on Long Island, which was described in a local magazine as belonging to the judge, and which is publicly listed as being owned by the Golia family. On November 29, 2009, Sheu alerted Janice Howard, the director of the OCA Ethics Department, of these apparent discrepancies. Sheu’s complaint included the following allegations, that Judge Golia: ..Failed to disclose fully his liabilities for 2002/2003/2004/2005/2006/2008, in that he:

– failed to disclose a mortgage held by HSBC under his wife “Roslaie Grecco” against the property

– failed to disclose a mortgage held by HSBC of “Joseph Golia and Rosalie Golia

– failed to disclose “Rosalie Grecco” employment/ income/ property

– failed to disclose “Hampton West” beach House (Breezy Point)

– interest conflict, own Flushing Bank stock (Flushing Financial Corp) and using connections” to get $750,000.000 in lower rate and mortgage more than the property market value, as NYC Dept. of Finance record, 2007 property market about $220,000.00… Finally, on June 23rd, 2010, Sheu was personally handed the amended disclosure form by Janice Howard at the Ethics Committee office. Sheu discovered that even the amended disclosure form still neglected to mention the beach house as well any of the other properties Sheu believed were owned by Golia… When Sheu received the amended form at the Ethics Committee office, he was accompanied by two associates, one of whom recorded Sheu’s reaction to reading the amended form. On the recording, Sheu can be heard exclaiming “Now I’ve got him!…I’ve got enough evidence to put Golia in Jail.” Three days later, Sunny Sheu was dead. His associates don’t believe it was a coincidence.

The Daily Bail featured this YouTube video and supplied the transcript:

Sheu made the video roughly two months before his death. He also wrote FBI agent Rachel Rojas seeking witness protection. It appears his request was ignored. Foreclosure Fraud noted:

Sunny was kidnapped, intimidated and threatened by two NYPD detectives at the Queens DA bureau. He was told by the detectives that if he took his case to the media or filed a complaint against Golia he would be killed. Sunny was told by the Captain of the 109th pct that the cops detained him because he had put a letter in Golia’s mailbox, proving it was Golia that ordered the illegal detention.

The cornoner’s report found that Shue died of a blow to the head which caused his brain to bleed. Conveniently, a police report says a witness saw Sheu collapsed. The coroner admitted in an interview that his only basis for his conclusion that Sheu died as a result of the fall was the witness report. The authorities have refused to release the police report or any 911 call, denying requests made by ABC News and Black Star News under New York’s Freedom of Information Act.

Ilovelawyers says that the NYPD originally said Sheu died of head trauma but later changed the their story to claiming that Sheu died of an an aneurism, which is inconsistent with any reading of the coroners’ remarks.

Ilovelawyers has a clip on YouTube on the suspicious police conduct when Sheu died:

Their comments under the clip:

POLICE ILLEGALLY REMOVE SUNNY’ SHEU’s BODY FROM HOSPITAL Ernesto Macasaet, supervisor of admissions at New York Queens Hospital reports that a policeman “identified” the body of Sunny Sheu only twelve hours after he died, and before any family or friends could identify the body. There is no precedent for this, unless there is a criminal investigation underway, which there is not. According to hospital staff, the legal department was in a frenzy. They called up the precinct to find out if the police officer was authentic. Who was this police officer? Why did he identify Sunny’s body before next of kin were notified? Why did he request that the body be taken to the Medical examiner? How did he know what Sunny Sheu looked like? Why did he not give his name to the Medical Examiner as required by law? Why did the police give an unsubstantiated and uninvestigated report to the Medical examiner, regarding a witness who has never been identified?

The Queens District Attorney is allegedly investigating Sheu’s death, but given that this involves looking into allegations against a Queens judge and a Queens police office, I don’t have much hope for this inquiry going anywhere absent more media pressure.