A former landlord who once owned or controlled 22 Buffalo homes where 29 children suffered lead poisoning pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court to making and using a false statement on documents related to lead-paint disclosures for properties he sold.
Prosecutors and inspectors consider Angel Elliot Dalfin to have been among the worst – if not the worst – rental housing operators in Buffalo before he sold his properties a few years ago. A fugitive for more than a year after the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a criminal complaint in May 2021, he surrendered in July 2022 at the federal courthouse to face criminal charges related to lead-paint violations.
At the height of his operation, Dalfin owned or controlled more than 150 single- and two-family homes in Buffalo, rented mostly to low-income people of color on the city’s East Side. Dalfin repeatedly violated laws by failing to maintain the properties, allowing lead paint to deteriorate, and he also provided deficient and false lead disclosures – or no disclosures at all – to tenants and purchasers of his properties, according to a state Attorney General’s Office investigation.
In federal court, he admitted to a felony charge for falsely stating that he had no knowledge of lead-based paint hazards in 23 rental homes he sold or had no reports or records pertaining to lead-based paint in the houses.
Dalfin, 58, faces a maximum prison sentence of five years and a $250,000 fine.
In a plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to a prison sentence of 12 to 18 months and a fine between $5,500 and $55,000.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo is not bound by the recommended sentence the prosecution and defense counsel agreed to, and the judge can impose a lesser or more severe punishment when he sentences Dalfin on Sept. 7.
Dalfin agreed to make restitution of $115,000, or $5,000 for each of the houses cited in the federal complaint. The $5,000 is about how much it costs to remove…
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