The ‘Most Colorful Home in Queens’ Has a Dark Secret

My investigative piece for the New York Times

For the last three months, I’ve been investigating a complex, multi-million dollar case of real estate fraud (gift link) in the Queens Bengali community for the New York Times. This story came out of nowhere: Matt, my editor on the real estate desk, reached out asking if I could do a straight story on a goofy looking house in Astoria and I said sure. I spent 30 minutes going through the ACRIS records¹ that night while half paying attention to a baseball game on TV. My goal wasn’t to unearth anything, I just wanted to know who’s name was on the deed.

It turned out to be a woman named Jasmin Bokhari, and the first thing that pops up when you search her name on Google is a Federal conviction for her husband Rashidun who is doing a three-year bid at FCI Lewisburg for wire fraud in a real estate swindle. He had apparently scammed several Bengali neighbors out of more than $1 million in the 2010s, including a mother and daughter out of their life savings.

I emailed Matt and said there might be something bigger going on here, and we got on the phone to talk it through. Once I got his blessing to investigate, we were off to the races. I dug through the PACER² records and found that the victims’ names in the criminal complaint had been unsealed, and then waded through the civil case that one of them, Aslam Ansari, had filed a couple years prior. I spent hours talking to his lawyers on the phone and in their offices, and many more reviewing documents they shared with me.

The facts we knew going were that a man named Rashidun Bokhari was convicted of bilking three people out of more than $1 million—but once we started talking to the victims, we realized that the crimes that the government knew about were just the tip of the iceberg.

Thea Traff’s exceptional portraits. Aslam Ansari, top left, who knew the Bokharis for decades, sued them in 2021, alleging they embezzled the money he gave them for real estate investments. The New York Times spoke with nine other members of the local Bengali community who made similar allegations against Rashidun Bokhari and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Nearly a dozen other Bengali community members accused Mr. Bokhari of defrauding them, but they needed to remain anonymous for fears of ICE actions. Many of them are green card holders, some are naturalized citizens. That’s how deep the anxiety over ICE actions is right now; it’s creating an environment where no one wants to be on the government’s radar and creating an ecosystem where frauds like this can operate unimpeded. They trusted us with their story, and I hope we did them some justice.

The story came out this morning. This is my first time doing honest-to-god investigative work, and it was challenging and exhausting and invigorating and spiritually vitalizing. I hope you read the story and let me know what you think about it.

The gift link is here.

1. The Automated City Register Information System, which is the public database for real estate transactions in New York.

2. Public Access to Court Electronic Records