*New York Attorney General Letitia James has announced the arrest and 23‑count indictment of Mark Salkey, 58, of Queens, for allegedly stealing the East Flatbush home and life savings of 92‑year‑old Althea Garrick, who suffers from advanced dementia.
Salkey is charged with grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, criminal possession of a forged instrument, forgery, offering a false instrument for filing, and falsifying business records, among other counts, and faces a potential sentence of up to 25 years in prison on the top charge.
Prosecutors say that between 2022 and 2024, Salkey used forged documents, including a forged deed, to transfer ownership of Garrick’s longtime home in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, to his company, Salkey Salkey & Associate, Inc. Once he had control of the property, he allegedly moved in unauthorized tenants, one of them her sister, and charged them $2,000 to $2,200 per month, collecting about $70,000 in rent while Garrick and her ex‑husband, Reginald Kelly, were forced to live in a single small bedroom in the house they had owned for decades.
AG Letitia James says 58-year-old Mark Salkey of Queens forged paperwork between 2022 and 2024 to steal the home of an elderly woman with dementia in East Flatbush. Salkey & his attorney wouldn’t agree to an interview with us. Neither would the NYC finance department. @CBSNewYork pic.twitter.com/wpVHiC1IRH
— Tim McNicholas (@TimMcNicholas) June 26, 2026
The home, purchased by Garrick and Kelly in 1976 and solely owned by Garrick since 1998, was worth about $950,000 when it was allegedly stolen in 2023 and is now valued at over $1 million. In addition to the deed theft, Salkey is accused of draining approximately $148,000 from Garrick’s bank accounts and about $20,000 from Kelly’s pension using forged checks and electronic transfers, spending the money on personal expenses including credit card bills, luxury retail purchases, rental cars, clothing, nail salon visits, and airfare.
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In addition to the emotional toll from deed theft, there is also an impact on passing along generational wealth. A home is often the greatest asset Black families have. They build equity and use it for emergencies while they are living and pass the home down as an inheritance when they die. Deed theft schemes hurt the Black family’s ability to keep funds in the family.
Attorney General James called deed theft a “heartless crime” and emphasized that her office will work to return Garrick’s home to its rightful owner and hold Salkey accountable. She also warned of a disturbing rise in housing scams that disproportionately target elderly Black homeowners in gentrifying neighborhoods, with deed theft complaints to her office surging from 149 in 2023 to 517 in 2025.
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