EX-BRONX CO-OP BOARD PRESIDENT PAYS BACK $120,000 STOLEN FROM 93-YEAR-OLD NEIGHBOR

 

Defendant Emptied Savings of Victim While She Was in Nursing Home

Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced that a former Bronx Co-Op Board president has paid more than $120,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to stealing from a 93-year-old woman who entrusted her with her checkbook. 

District Attorney Clark said, “This defendant took advantage of a 93-year-old woman in the hospital, who struggled to read and write in English. The victim asked the defendant, who was the president of her co-op board, to write the checks for maintenance payments while she was sick. Consumed with greed, the defendant stole this vulnerable woman’s life savings.” 

District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Majia-Leena Frayer, 74, of St. Petersburg, Florida pleaded guilty to one count of Grand Larceny in the fourth degree on May 21, 2025. The defendant was sentenced today to three years conditional discharge by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Timothy Lewis. As part of the plea agreement the defendant has paid restitution in the amount of $120,263.

According to the investigation, the victim was a tenant at Varma Cooperative Home at 828 Gerard Avenue, where Frayer also lived and served as co-op board president. The victim, who did not speak English, relied on Frayer to help her write monthly maintenance checks to the co-op board. In February 2021, when the victim entered hospital care, the defendant started writing checks against the account. When the victim went to a nursing home, Frayer wrote checks over the next seven months for more than $120,000. The victim passed away in November 2023. Her nephew and heir, who alerted authorities to the fraud, has inherited her assets.

District Attorney Clark thanked NYPD Criminalist Level IV Dr. Melvin Shaw, and NYPD Detectives Daniel Angen, Sandy Nunez, and Christopher Persaud of the Bronx DA Squad for their work on the case.