A man got quite a surprise when he returned to some land he purchased in 1991 to find that someone built a house on it.
Dr. Daniel Kenigsberg, a 70-year-old endocrinologist from Long Island, New York, discovered in 2023 that the land he bought in 1991, and had owned outright since 2011 following his brother’s death, had somehow been sold off.
All by a scammer in South Africa pretending to be him.
Kenigsberg had long refused to sell the half-acre lot at 51 Sky Top Terrace in Fairfield, Connecticut.
It was a piece of land loaded with emotional value. Situated next to his childhood home—originally bought by his father for just $5,000 in 1953—the land had been in the family for over 70 years.
The family had even purchased it from descendants of one of the area's original settlers, Eleazar Parmly Jr., who had roots there going back to 1716.
Despite moving to Long Island and building a career in medicine, the dream to return to Fairfield remained alive, per Greenwichtime.
“Certainly if one of my children wanted to live in Fairfield, Connecticut, I’d be very happy about that,” Kenigsberg said.
But that dream took a bizarre turn in May 2023, when a friend who was passing through the neighborhood alerted him that a four-bedroom mansion was being built on his lot.
Recalling the moment, he told CT Insider: “I said: ‘I own that and I never sold it’. I was shocked.”
Upon visiting the property, Kenigsberg was stunned to see that not only was the lot cleared of its trees, but a nearly completed house - valued at $1.45 million - was now standing in its place.
Documents revealed that the property had been sold to a developer, 51 Sky Top Partners LLC, in October 2022 for $350,000. The buyer, believing the transaction was legitimate, began building a luxury home on the site.
The sale, however, was anything but legitimate.
It turned out that the land was sold by someone in Johannesburg, South Africa, who had allegedly impersonated Dr. Kenigsberg using a fake passport, per the Washington Post.
Consumer protection lawyer Kevin Kneupper explained the method on TikTok: "It's really easy to go find who owns land. If you've never done searches on this, in most counties, you can actually just go, it depends on your state.
"But in many places, you just search online, they'll have databases, so they could find out real easily who's the actual owner and then just pretend to be him."
The scammer reportedly registered an address in Johannesburg and presented a forged power of attorney, claiming legal authority to sell the land.
The passport used included a wrong birthdate, incorrect address, and even a mismatched photo—but it still convinced lawyers and developers that they were dealing with the real Dr. Kenigsberg.
According to Patch, the con artist had even made a fake passport under Kenigsberg’s name, and the deception was enough to push the $350,000 transaction through.
“Dr Kenigsberg has never lived in Johannesburg, South Africa, and was not traveling there in 2022,” a lawsuit filed in response to the sale states.
As construction progressed, Kenigsberg filed a lawsuit seeking to have the deed transfer overturned and the property dismantled. He sued the developer on nine counts, and construction on the house was halted pending legal resolution.
Lawyer Anthony Monelli, who handled the transaction, was also named in the suit for allegedly failing to verify the legitimacy of the power of attorney used in the sale.
“It looks like somebody from South Africa reached out to maybe the broker and maybe Attorney Monelli,” the doctor’s lawyer told CT Insider. “Apparently there are scammers around the country doing this kind of thing.”
While Monelli and 51 Sky Top Partners LLC were not accused of orchestrating the scam, the suit argued they “knew or should have caught the forgery.”
The case, first probed by Fairfield Police, was later handed over to the FBI, where it reportedly remains open.
In April 2024, after nearly a year of legal wrangling, Dr. Kenigsberg agreed to a private settlement. Though the specific terms weren’t released to the public, sources say he did receive a payout.
Despite falling victim to a fraudulent sale and facing thousands in legal fees, the developers did end up selling the property for a solid profit - offloading it for $1.45 million.