Ex-landlord who rented Buffalo homes where children suffered lead poisoning admits criminal charge

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 lead-paint hazards for a house, Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango told Vilardo.

Vilardo can also set a different restitution amount at the time of sentencing.

When Dalfin asked the judge if it might be a lesser amount than the $115,000, the judge said, "probably not."

Last November, State Supreme Court Justice Catherine Nugent Panepinto ordered Dalfin to pay nearly $5.1 million in penalties, restitution and forfeited rent for lead paint violations prosecuted in state court.

When asked by a reporter after Thursday's plea hearing if Dalfin had paid the millions of dollars he owes the state, his attorney Michael M. Blotnik said, "You know the answer to that."

When pressed for his answer, Blotnik said he had no information about whether Dalfin had paid the state court-imposed fine.

The $50,000 deposited with the federal court for Dalfin's appearance bond, which allowed him to be released from custody after his surrender, was paid by someone else – not Dalfin, Blotnik told Vilardo.

Dalfin, a father of eight grown children, told Vilardo that he has been unemployed since the outbreak of Covid-19.

He told the judge he is being treated by a psychiatrist for bipolar disorder and also receives medical treatment for a heart illness.

Federal and state cases

During his remarks to the judge, Mango referred to "quite of bit of history in this case." 

When the state sued Dalfin in September 2020, the Attorney General's Office said that at least 63 of the Dalfin-controlled properties had been cited for lead hazards since 2013, and nearly two dozen Dalfin properties were associated with lead-poisoned children.

Even before the state sued, Dalfin was already aware of the state's ongoing investigation at the time because he received in December 2019 information that the office was issuing subpoenas regarding him and his companies. In 2020, Dalfin used email to facilitate the transfer and sales of his properties, according to the criminal complaint. Dalfin was well aware of potential lead-based paint hazards in several of the properties but continued to sell them with false lead disclosures, according to prosecutors. 

Federal prosecutors said that even after a state judge's order restraining him from selling or transferring any properties in New York State, he continued to actively orchestrate and execute the sale of properties.

Among the rental properties cited in the plea agreement is a two-family house at 53 Shepard St. in the Genesee-Moselle neighborhood. Built around 1900, it was owned by a Dalfin entity from 2013 through 2020.

The criminal complaint reveals a timeline of inspections, violations and children reported living at the property with elevated blood lead levels.

Between December 2014 and August 2019, the Erie County Department of Health received reports of two children with higher than normal blood lead levels, including one with an extremely high level. Between January 2015 and August 2019, the department found at least 41 lead paint hazard violations at the property. Notices of violation were issued on at least three separate occasions in 2015, 2018 and 2019.

On Dec. 29, 2014, the department received a report that a 2-year-old resident of 53 Shepard, who resided with her pregnant mother, had an elevated blood lead level, and an inspection soon after found conditions conducive to lead poisoning, including chipping and peeling paint. Dalfin's property manager submitted a lead remediation work plan dated Jan. 27, 2015. Two weeks later, the property manager provided a lead disclosure statement to a new tenant, through Belmont Housing, which falsely stated that the landlord had no knowledge of lead-based paint and/or lead-based paint hazards in the house or had no reports or records pertaining to lead-based paint and/or lead-based paint hazards in the house.

When the county Health Department re-inspected the house in April 2015 and June 2015, it found the lead paint hazard conditions had not been remediated.

Later, in July 2015, the department inspected the house again and determined that lead hazards on the property were "temporarily controlled by the use of interim controls."

On April 3, 2018, the department inspected the house again and found conditions conducive to lead poisoning from deteriorated paint.

The department inspected the house in August 2018 and determined that the previous violations had been corrected.

On Aug. 2, 2019, the department received a report of a child with an extremely high blood lead level at the property.

The department inspected the premises again and confirmed the presence of lead on surfaces in multiple locations in the house.

On Aug. 6, 2019, the department sent a notice and demand letter noting conditions conducive to lead poisoning and identifying 23 interior and exterior lead paint hazard violations at the property.

After the property management company submitted a remediation plan, the department inspected the house on Aug. 29, 2019, and found the lead conditions were "temporarily controlled by the use of interim controls."

The lead-paint disclosures required by federal law for homes built before 1978 were either not made or contained false information when this property and the other properties were sold, according to Mango.