Lawyer Pleads Guilty To Scamming Harlem Church, DA Says

HARLEM, NY — A Delaware-based lawyer pleaded guilty to scamming a Harlem church out of hundreds of thousands of dollars while representing them as clients in a land deal, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., announced.

John Shasanmi, 39, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree grand larceny and one count of third-degree possession of a forged instrument, prosecutors announced. The lawyer was indicted on the same charges in July 2018.

The Wilmington, Delaware-based attorney diverted $600,000 intended for Harlem's Second Providence Baptist Church into his own personal bank accounts in 2014, prosecutors said. The lawyer conducted his scheme while representing the church in a land deal with Azimuth Development, prosecutors said.

In November of 2014 the church and Azimuth agreed to a deal in which Azimuth gained the rights to develop the church's land on West 116th Street between Fifth Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard into a multi-use development with the church owning the first three floors of the new building, prosecutors said.

Azimuth deposited $250,000 into what it believed was Shasanmi's escrow account on Dec. 10, 2014, prosecutors said. The money was to be paid to the Second Providence Baptist Church when the land deal closed. In actuality, the money was sent to a personal account in Shasanmi's name and the money was spent by April 23, 2015, prosecutors said

Shasanmi again diverted an Azimuth payment — this time $350,000 — to his personal account in April 2017. The money was spent by November, prosecutors said.

When the pastor of Second Providence Baptist Church asked the attorney for a statement from the escrow account, Shasanmi presented a forged document to cover up his theft, prosecutors said. In March of this year, the pastor demanded the lawyer turn over the money and was refused multiple times.

"John Shasanmi had an obligation to act in his clients’ best interest, but instead, he chose to exploit the faith his clients placed in him by stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the sale of their historic Harlem church," Vance said in a statement.

The new development on the Second Providence Baptist Church's land is set to rise 125-feet-tall, according to building plans filed in 2017. The building will contain residential units, residential amenities and space for a church facility, according to the plans.

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