A sprawling Forest Hills home tied to two brothers who helped finance a huge worldwide counterfeit-money operation is hitting the public sale block — with Uncle Sam opening the bidding at $900,000 — just $50,000 more than they paid for it more than 20 years in the past.
The five-bedroom Colonial at 110-37 69th Ave. will be bought in an online federal public sale on Oct. 23, according to the US Treasury Department, more than a decade after brothers Eduard and Arkadiy Bangiyev were arrested in a sprawling racketeering case involving tens of tens of millions of {dollars} in pretend US currency.
The 3,572-square-foot Queens home, constructed in 1930, has 4½ loos, an enclosed porch, a completed basement with an extra bed room and toilet, a sauna and a indifferent two-car storage.
The home is presently valued at a whopping $2.455 million, according to Redfin.
The property sits on a roughly 5,000-square-foot lot and will be bought “as is,” according to the authorities public sale itemizing.
The Forest Hills home is heading to federal public sale with bidding beginning at $900,000. CWS Government Auctions
Arkadiy Bangiyev (left) and Eduard Bangiyev (proper)
But behind the leafy Forest Hills deal with is a tangled historical past of counterfeit money, an alleged $1 million jewellery fraud and years of litigation over who really owned the property.
Eduard and Arkadiy Bangiyev purchased the home in 2003 for $850,000 with a $750,000 mortgage, according to a 2023 ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Beginning in 2004, the brothers participated in a prison enterprise that manufactured and distributed huge portions of counterfeit US currency, according to federal prosecutors and court information.
The operation produced high-quality counterfeit notes in Israel and the US and smuggled them into the nation hid inside transport containers carrying machinery. At its peak, the group was bringing as much as $3 million in counterfeit currency into the US every three months, according to the Justice Department.
More than $80 million in counterfeit currency was in the end handed or seized around the world in connection with the operation, prosecutors said.
Eduard and Arkadiy Bangiyev purchased the Queens property for $850,000 in 2003. CWS Government Auctions
The Bangiyev brothers, who operated a retail jewellery store on Long Island and later a gold-refining business in Manhattan’s Diamond District, helped finance the enterprise and distribute its counterfeit currency, according to federal authorities.
Both pleaded guilty in January 2015 to taking part in a RICO conspiracy involving counterfeiting and money structuring.
Arkadiy was sentenced that September to 9 years — 108 months — in federal prison, while Eduard acquired eight years, or 96 months. As half of their plea agreements, both also agreed to forfeit property derived from or traceable to their racketeering exercise.
The five-bedroom Colonial spans 3,572 sq. toes and dates to 1930. CWS Government Auctions
The Forest Hills home turned one of the property caught up in that forfeiture.
But the property’s legal historical past was difficult by another alleged fraud that was separate from the counterfeit-currency conspiracy.
According to the Fourth Circuit, a federal district court discovered that money used to repay the home’s mortgage and home-equity traces of credit in 2012 came from a scheme devised by the brothers to defraud a jewellery buyer out of $1 million.
That alleged scheme was “unrelated to the RICO conspiracy” underlying their later prison convictions, the appellate court harassed. It instead prompted the federal authorities to deliver civil-forfeiture proceedings in New York in 2009 against the 69th Avenue home and another Forest Hills property.
The authorities dismissed that earlier case in 2011 in exchange for a $662,500 settlement signed by the brothers and their sister, Ilana Bangiyeva, according to the court.
The brothers pleaded guilty in 2015 to a counterfeiting-linked RICO conspiracy. CWS Government Auctions
Years later, the possession of the 69th Avenue home turned the subject of another prolonged court battle following the brothers’ RICO convictions.
Before their convictions, the deed divided possession 3 ways: Arkadiy held one-third; their sister Ilana held another third; and Eduard and his spouse, Irina Alishayeva, collectively held the remaining third, according to the Fourth Circuit.
Ilana argued that she had legitimately acquired pursuits in the home and other property utilizing proceeds from a gold investment she said she made with her brothers.
But the district court rejected that account, discovering inadequate evidence to set up that the claimed gold investment had produced the money used to purchase the property. The Fourth Circuit later upheld that discovering.
The district court in the end decided that the Forest Hills property supplied a “source of influence” over the brothers’ racketeering enterprise and ordered it forfeited.
The home later turned tied up in years of forfeiture litigation. CWS Government Auctions
The authorities wound up with a two-thirds possession curiosity in the property, while Alishayeva retained a one-third share.
Initially, a federal decide allowed Alishayeva — whose major residence was the Forest Hills home — to stay there for the relaxation of her life as long as she remained married to Eduard, leaving the authorities successfully unable to promote its majority stake.
Federal prosecutors appealed.
In 2023, the Fourth Circuit sided with the authorities, ruling that the decrease court did not have the authority to stop the authorities from exercising the property rights that came with its two-thirds possession stake. The appeals court vacated that portion of the forfeiture order and despatched the case back for further proceedings.
Bidding begins at $900,000, with a $150,000 deposit required to take part. The Treasury Department has scheduled public inspections for Oct. 11 and Oct. 18 forward of the Oct. 23 online sale.
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