The 3,572‑square‑foot, 1930‑built house on 69th Avenue was bought in 2003 for $850,000, financed by a $750,000 mortgage and a line of credit that later proved tainted.
In January 2015, Eduard and Arkadiy Bangiyev pleaded guilty to a RICO conspiracy that moved up to $80 million in counterfeit U.S. currency into the country, with shipments hidden in machinery containers. The brothers ran a jewelry and gold‑refining operation that funded the scheme and laundered the proceeds into real‑estate assets.
The Treasury’s forfeiture action followed a 2009 civil case and a 2011 settlement of $662,500, after which the brothers’ two‑thirds stake was seized. A 2023 appellate ruling removed a life‑interest granted to Eduard’s wife, Irina Alishayeva, allowing the government to sell its majority share.
Local residents have watched the house sit abandoned for years, its porch overgrown and windows boarded. One neighbor, who grew up next door, says the property feels like a ghost of a once‑busy family home.
The online auction will open at 12:00 a.m. Eastern on October 23, with a $900,000 reserve that mirrors the price the brothers paid in 2003. The Treasury expects the sale to recover a modest amount of the assets tied to a crime that shook New York’s financial districts.