A convicted thief has successfully sued a family for more than $12 million — after robbing them of $1 million, his victims claim.
The Queens conman — who raked in more than $1 million by swiping the IDs of six unsuspecting family members more than a decade ago — could now walk away with an even bigger pile of cash after convincing a Manhattan jury that his victims were to blame for his criminal conviction, according to court records.
The victims claim they had no idea the lawsuit filed against them by ex-con Jacob Milton had gone to trial, until getting an Aug. 5 letter telling them they owed him a whopping $12.5 million.
“How can victims of his fraud ‘repay’ him this amount when their financial lives are still hurt by this?” said Kate Alvarez, a family member of one of the victims.
Milton, 55, was a Queens mortgage broker who pleaded guilty to grand larceny and served three years behind bars.
He was accused of taking out hefty mortgages and running up huge credit card bills on behalf of more than half a dozen unsuspecting victims in the 2007 scheme, six of whom are related. In 2010, Milton was sentenced to two to six years in prison, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
About a year after Milton got his freedom back, he lodged a $50 million lawsuit against the people he stole from — claiming they’d wrongly accused him, court documents show.
The family — Mayra Macias, Juan C. Alvarez, Juan B. Alvarez, Lorena Alvarez, Martha Viteri and Hector Sandoval — initially hired lawyer Noah Goldstein to fight the case.
But when Goldstein later dropped out of the case, they failed to hire a new lawyer or respond to orders from the judge directing them to appear at court.
“The family said they had no idea a trial was scheduled and held, and a judgment awarded until last week,” said Goldstein, who has reconnected with the family. “The jury, seeing an empty defendant’s chair, probably [thought] they [were] supposed to believe Milton and give him what he wants.” (NYPost)