News

Jun 23, 2023

Lawsuit: $1.4M Connecticut home was built on fraudulently sold lot

Daniel Kenigsberg was taken aback when he visited his family’s Connecticut property for the first time in about five years. For nearly seven decades, including when he lived next door, the land was

Daniel Kenigsberg was taken aback when he visited his family’s Connecticut property for the first time in about five years.

For nearly seven decades, including when he lived next door, the land was covered with trees and grass. But this spring, Kenigsberg found the trees had been cut down, and instead, a three-story house sat there on dirt.

Unsure what had happened and what he should do, Kenigsberg called his attorney, who began investigating.

In a recent lawsuit first reported on by CT Insider, Kenigsberg claimed that someone from Johannesburg impersonated him to sell his 0.45-acre property. He’s requesting that the house be demolished and the trees and grass be replanted.

Kenigsberg, 70, told The Washington Post that he’s still trying to grasp how it all occurred without someone noticing.

“I was living my life normally until May 31st,” Kenigsberg said, “and all of a sudden, this happened.”

In 1953, Kenigsberg said, his parents, Nathaniel and Esther, bought about an acre of land in Fairfield, Conn., for just over $5,000. They built a house on one side but left the rest of the land alone. On Kenigsberg’s first birthday in October 1953, his family moved into the four-bedroom home.

As a kid there, Kenigsberg said, he built a treehouse in an apple tree and played baseball with neighbors. He left Connecticut when he was 22 to attend New York Medical College before moving to Maryland for a residency. He and his wife moved in 1984 to Setauket, N.Y., where they raised two children.

After Kenigsberg’s mother died in 2007, he obtained the Connecticut property. He sold his childhood home in 2011 but maintained the 0.45-acre lot covered in trees. While remaining in Setauket, Kenigsberg said, he paid taxes on the land, planning to pass it down to his children or grandchildren. Kenigsberg said he rejected multiple offers to sell the lot.

In August 2022, Kenigsberg’s property appeared for sale without his knowledge. Someone impersonating Kenigsberg signed a power of attorney in September to grant a Connecticut attorney permission to sign legal documents for him, according to the lawsuit.

In October, 51 Sky Top Partners, a Connecticut firm that buys and holds real estate, purchased the property for $350,000. A few months later, 51 Sky Top Partners collaborated with a construction company to begin building a four-bedroom, five-bathroom house on the property, 51 Sky Top owner Gina Leto said in a statement.

The 4,000-square-foot house appeared for sale on Coldwell Banker Realty in March for $1,475,000. The listing said the home would come with quartz kitchen countertops, a fireplace, a two-car garage and a security system. The listing agent did not respond to requests for comment.

Kenigsberg was sitting in his Long Island office in May when a grade-school friend called to let him know that one of their childhood friends was sick and receiving hospice care. Kenigsberg said he would take a ferry later that day to visit.

As they were wrapping up their conversation, Kenigsberg’s friend mentioned the house being built next to Kenigsberg’s childhood home. Kenigsberg said he had no idea what he was talking about.

After finishing work, Kenigsberg said, he rode a ferry for roughly 75 minutes and visited his sick friend. Then, another friend drove him to his hometown, where Kenigsberg saw the house.

Kenigsberg’s attorney began uncovering what happened as Kenigsberg returned to Long Island. Some unknown person had made a fake passport for Kenigsberg with an incorrect birthday, photo and address, Kenigsberg said.

“I’m not, and have never been, in South Africa,” Kenigsberg said.

When Kenigsberg’s attorney, Peter Nolin, informed 51 Sky Top Partners a few days later that it didn’t purchase the property from the correct owner, construction stopped, Leto said in a statement. Since then, crews have approached the land only to secure the house, Leto said.

Although 51 Sky Top Partners is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, Leto said she is filing a motion to be dismissed from the case.

“We, as buyer, had no contact with the party impersonating Kenigsberg,” Leto said in a statement. “We had no reason to believe he was an impostor. We would not have paid $350,000 for the property — nor would we have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars more in construction — if we had.”

Anthony Monelli, the lawyer who was given power of attorney before the land’s sale, declined to comment.

An ongoing investigation by the Fairfield Police Department began in June.

Kenigsberg filed the lawsuit against Monelli and 51 Sky Top Partners on July 14 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. He said he hopes to be a Connecticut property owner again soon.

“It’s a very deep part of my life,” Kenigsberg said. “This was kind of my anchor to Connecticut.”