A federal judge criticized a repeat house thief for defrauding unknowing — or even deceased — homeowners
Macangelo Tillman used a sophisticated deed theft scheme to steal five houses in Philadelphia, prosecutors said.
In August 2019, Macangelo Tillman told a prospective buyer he was looking to sell his grandfather’s West Philadelphia rowhouse.
The three-bedroom house on the 100 block of North Edgewood Street had about 1,000 square feet of living space and a front porch. And all Tillman was asking for was $5,000 in cash.
So the man paid.
A few months later, Tillman sent the city’s recorder of deeds a notarized document purporting to transfer the property’s title to the new owner — complete with a signature from its previous owner, a person Tillman described as his grandfather.
But Tillman’s grandfather never owned the house, federal prosecutors said in court documents. And the signature on the deed he submitted was not only forged, they said — the name belonged to someone who had been dead for three years.
On Thursday, Tillman faced the consequences for what prosecutors described as an elaborate, multiyear house-theft scheme — an arrangement in which Tillman used forged deeds and corrupt notaries to illegally seek ownership of five properties, which he then tried to sell or rent out.
U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe ordered Tillman to serve six years in federal prison, calling his scheme a “blatant disregard for the rights of others, and outright thievery.” She said his actions were complex and intricate, requiring “precise actions and specific conduct and order.”
“When I see how many people and their families and properties and the city are involved in being victimized, well, I’m glad he was stopped when he was,” Rufe said. “This could’ve gotten worse. This could’ve been a course of conduct that never really ceased.”
Deed theft has long been a problem in Philadelphia, with thieves typically targeting elderly or even deceased homeowners or those experiencing financial hardship. Authorities say the scale of the thievery is difficult to quantify, but some criminal cases show how brazen the crime can be: Earlier this year, the district attorney’s office charged a notary with helping to facilitate the theft of nearly two dozen homes.
City officials say they have taken steps in recent years to try to combat the issue, including by creating an automatic disclosure system for people whose names appear on city real estate transactions.
Tillman, for his part, apologized in court for his actions, telling Rufe that he had already sought to pay back some of his victims and that he had admitted his conduct by pleading guilty to five counts of wire fraud.
“I accepted 100% responsibility,” he said.
The prison stint will not be Tillman’s first for financial fraud. More than a decade ago, court records show, he was sentenced to eight months behind bars for his role in a credit card fraud scheme.
Rufe said that history influenced her decision Thursday.
“There’s no doubt that his prior criminal behavior has been repeated,” she said.
In the house-theft scheme, prosecutors said, Tillman in 2015 began working with others — including a deed finder and a notary — to identify houses that were about to be put up for a sheriff sale, often due to large unpaid bills or because the owners were dead.
He would then have deeds prepared that fraudulently transferred ownership to him or people close to him, prosecutors said. And he had a notary place forged signatures on the deed before submitting it to the city and securing the properties for himself or his associates.
Tillman then went on to use the properties for financial gain, prosecutors said — either by remodeling and renting them out or by selling them to buyers who had no idea they were purchasing a home that had been acquired through deceit.
In one instance from 2019, prosecutors said, Tillman submitted paperwork indicating that a couple had agreed to transfer the title of their house — even though both had been dead for more than 20 years.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Anita Eve said Tillman “took advantage of the fact that people were dead” to execute his scheme.
Rufe, the judge, said Tillman’s actions “cannot be tolerated.”
“This is not to be emulated by anyone,” she said.