Tommy Huang Pleads Guilty to Securities Fraud: AG Schneiderman

Tommy Huang, one of the borough’s most notorious developers, and his wife have pleaded guilty to securities fraud related to the development and sale of condominiums, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said.

The controversial developer, who has a prior criminal conviction, has now been banned from construction in the city for at least five years, must turn over $3.3 million in illegally obtained profits and will pay $1.5 in penalties, the attorney general said.

“Today we are holding Tommy and Alice Huang and their son accountable for fraudulent business practices,” Schneiderman said. “We’re requiring the Huangs to pay back their ill gotten gains with a hefty fine that sends the message – enough is enough,” Schneiderman said. “Mr. Huang’s misconduct stretches back decades and includes unsafe construction sites, environmental crimes, building code violations and fraudulent securities transactions – all in Queens.”

The Huangs pleaded before Queens Supreme Court Justice Pauline Mullings on Wednesday to committing felony securities fraud through developing and selling condominium units at Elmhurst’s Broadway Tower Condominium.

The couple conspired with their son to sell the units at the condominium, which they developed in 2008, despite being permanently banned from selling condos and other co-ops in the state after having cheated homebuyers at a Flushing development in 1999.

That same year, Huang pleaded guilty to damaging the landmarked interior of Flushing’s RKO Keith's Theatre and was sentenced to five years’ probation.

More recently, Community Board 11 voted unanimously against granting a variance for Huang to complete four homes he was constructing on Mia Drive in Bayside.

Queens elected officials praised the attorney general’s office for going after the developers.

“The Huangs have been a scourge on the Queens community for as long as I’ve been in office,” state Sen. Tony Avella, D-Bayside, said. “They have ruined people’s homes and their neighborhoods.”

State Sen. Toby Stavisky, D-Whitestone, said the Huangs had been a “blight” on the community for at least 30 years.

“Let it be a warning to people committing these types of crimes that the attorney general is watching,” she said. “We must do what we can to encouraged the responsible developers and put the corrupt in jail.”