William Fickbohm, of Lakeview, is second person charged in Nassau rental scams

A second person has been charged with scamming Nassau County residents by renting out properties that belonged to other people, according to the police.

William Fickbohm, 71, of Lakeview, and Aurelia Soogea, 39, of West Hempstead and Baldwin, allegedly ran scams in West Hempstead, East Meadow and Hicksville that involved fraudulently renting out properties they did not own, police said.

Soogea also is facing new charges in connection with the rental fraud.

The scam came to light in late July when Soogea was first arrested for allegedly forging paperwork to transfer the deed of a Maple Street home into her own name. The house belonged to a 75-year-old West Hempstead man, Newsday previously reported.

At the time, Soogea was charged for eight burglary and fraud-related crimes, which were tied to both the deed fraud and her renting out of properties that she did not own throughout the month of July.

Nassau police said on Sunday that Fickbohm was charged in connection with multiple scams, including Soogea renting a home on Meadowbrook Road in Hempstead to a 49-year-old woman.

The alleged victim put down a $7,000 security deposit, but later encountered the real homeowner who said he had never rented out the home, police said. The homeowner also said a key to the home had been stolen from an outdoor lockbox, according to police.

Soogea was charged in that incident on Aug. 19.

Police discovered that Fickbohm and Soogea operated similar rental scams in East Meadow and Hicksville, according to a news release from the department. The department added that Soogea also is allegedly responsible for a second Hicksville rental scam.

Both face multiple counts of burglary, grand larceny and fraud for those scams.

Fickbohm pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Hempstead’s First District Court on Aug. 27 and was released without bail. His attorney Lisa Corso declined to comment.

Soogea also pleaded not guilty to the new charges and was released without bail. Her attorney Jeffrey Groder could not be reached for comment.

Newsday's Janon Fisher contributed to this story.

By Sam Kmack

sam.kmack@newsday.com

Sam Kmack covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and previously worked as a city watchdog reporter in the Phoenix metro area, as well as an investigative journalist at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.