A Brooklyn man is accused of donning a wig, nail polish and dresses to impersonate his dead mom and collect $115,000 in Social Security and rent subsidies.
For six years, Thomas Prusik-Parkin hoodwinked a stunning array of government agencies with his elaborate charade - using a cane, heavy makeup, fake ID and a phony "nephew," law enforcement sources said.
The 49-year-old was busted late Monday and will be arraigned today on grand larceny, forgery and conspiracy charges linked to a deed and mortgage fraud scheme.
"I held my mother when she was dying and breathed in her last breath, so I am my mother," Prusik-Parkin said when he was arrested, according to detectives.
The mother, Irene Prusik, died in 2003 at age 73. The flimflam, which the Daily News learned of during a mortgage fraud probe, began immediately.
Her son allegedly gave the funeral director the wrong Social Security number and date of birth for his mother so that her death would not be registered in government databases.
He began collecting $700 a month in Social Security in her name, in addition to his own disability checks, sources said.
He's accused of posing as Irene to file for bankruptcy so "she" would be eligible for $39,000 in city subsidies to help pay rent on a Park Slope apartment.
To help in the ruse, Prusik-Parkin allegedly enlisted a close friend, Mhilton Rimolo, 47, to pose as Irene's nephew, help the "ailing aunt" get around town, cash government checks and assist in property transactions.
On April 29, for example, Rimolo was with "Irene" when she renewed a driver's license in Coney Island.
Banks, courts and federal and city agencies were taken in again and again - but the Brooklyn district attorney's rackets squad wasn't fooled.
When DA investigators showed up to interview Irene Prusik in May, they encountered an elderly "woman" in a red dress and dark sunglasses who answered all their questions, sources said.
Rimolo, who is also being charged, was at "her" side and told investigators Irene's son couldn't speak to them because he wasn't home.
The DA was tipped by the man who actually owns the home where Prusik-Parkin lives, a $2.2million brownstone building that appears to be at the center of a massive fraud.
In 1996, Irene Prusik deeded the home at 492 Sixth Ave. to her son, according to city records.
He took out a $200,000 mortgage to bankroll a real estate investment business that failed. He stopped making mortgage payments, the house went into foreclosure and it was bought by Samir Chopra in 2003.
To hold onto the brownstone and avoid eviction, Prusik-Parkin posed as his mother to file a suit alleging that he had forged the 1996 deed transfer, investigators allege. He even filed an affidavit from a nonexistent son.
In essence, investigators say, he sued himself to prove that he didn't have the title to the home and that Chopra - who also thought Irene Prusik was still alive - couldn't have legally bought it.
Prusik-Parkin deeded the house back to his mother last year. Then he took out a mortgage for almost a million dollars in her name in April, collecting some $300,000 of the loan.
That same month, Chopra convinced a Brooklyn judge the home really did belong to him, and the Prusik "family" was evicted in May.
Source : New York Daily News
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