‘It Is a Marriage Fraud’: Man, 93, Busted for Booting Wife Out of Queens Home

A 93-year-old newlywed was grappling with his seven-week itch. He realized he married the wrong woman. And so Qing Guan Zhao — who suffers blindness, partial deafness and requires an aid to tend to him day and night — made the fateful decision to call it quits with his younger wife, Xuanmei Wang.His method was especially coarse. He allegedly had the locks changed to a Flushing apartment that they shared while she was away. Then, when she returned on the evening of January 14, her key failed and she was stranded. The law swooped in and confirmed that the woman was intentionally “locked out of her shared apartment,” according to the criminal complaint. Legally, the 93-year-old Mr. Zhao was supposed to give the woman 30 days advance warning before unilaterally leaving her high and dry in the bone-chilling cold. And he was especially defiant about it, allegedly vowing to “beat her up” and explaining to cops that though he had been ordered to keep clear of his bride, that he was getting stiffed.The disastrous state of the bathroom inside the Bergen Street basement apartment that was allegedly wrecked by superintendent. Shantel Wilson“I don’t care about the order of protection,” he allegedly told the officers who showed up, referring to a Queens judge’s December 8 protection order barring him from contact with his less-than-better half.“She owes me rent money,” Mr. Zhao declared. The incident may be an extreme one. But also one of several the Sun found that are unfolding throughout the city involving power-drunk landlords opting to nix the rigmarole involved of filing the proper paperwork to properly part ways with their tenants. And instead callously booting tenants by hiring locksmiths who don’t ask a lot of questions or evicting by sheer force. ‘They Actually Broke The Toilet’Shantel Wilson walked into a Crown Heights demolition zone on the night of Oct. 13.The not-so-by-the-book basement apartment on Bergen Street that Ms. Wilson, 33, shared with her 37-year-old boyfriend, Olivier Louis, was gutted and flooded by sledgehammered pipes. Her home looked like Godzilla hosted a tea party. “They destroyed the entire apartment,” she told the Sun. “They flooded it. They took all of our clothes, our TV, ripped apart the refrigerator, the cabinets — they tore down the cabinet, they broke the sink. “They actually broke the toilet.”Notably, the couple contends their WiFi was intentionally “disabled” and the wreckers calculatedly dismantled their apartment’s doorbell cam. What prompted the destruction?The apartment’s cabinetry completely ripped from the walls and piled on the floor. Shantel WilsonAside from allegedly neglecting their critical requests to repair various issues (flooding, pests, and mold) for years — in 2025, management, namely the building’s superintendent, Maxwell Bardoo — frequently entered the couple’s apartment whenever they wanted (and without permission) to get access to the boiler or breaker while remodeling a neighboring apartment for a family that was moving in. Then came issues with the new tenants. “The family moved in on October 10 and we tried to talk to them about the noise they had been making into the late nights,” said Ms. Wilson on the escalation of tensions. “They got aggressive against my boyfriend [Mr. Louis] and saying he had a gun and hit one of the female family members.”Cops arrested Mr. Louis. But according to Wilson the charges were dropped and the case sealed because it was meritless. But the clashes remained. “My apartment was closed off until the search warrant was conducted on October 13, “ Wilson remembered. “I cleaned up and then 10 minutes after I left — they robbed us and destroyed the apartment.”Luckily, the location is a stone’s throw to the 77th Precinct on Utica Avenue. That proximity helped investigators pore over CCTV footage to nab the demo deviants. The 64-year-old super was charged with several counts of burglary, grand larceny, criminal trespass, criminal possession of stolen property, and criminal mischief.He’s since pleaded not guilty and is due back in court in April, court records show. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mr. Bardoo responded when pressed about his hand in the wreckage of Ms. Wilson and Mr. Louis’ Bergen Street apartment. He then hung up. The Sun’s messages to his attorney were not immediately returned.The landlord, whose name appears in the criminal complaint as “apprehended other” was also quick to end the conversation; stating he was in the middle of a Zoom call. More ruined fixtures from the alleged demo by the superintendent left piled on the ground. Shantel WilsonHe explained, “Send me a text message and I’ll return the call, no problem.”The Sun reached him to introduce the details of his alleged involvement in the home invasion. He did not respond. For Ms. Wilson (who’s a Brooklyn school staffer working with kids, some with special needs) and her boyfriend — the alleged moves wrought by the super and his purported wrecking crew that fateful autumn day proved to be an overt message. “They wanted to make sure that we would not come back,” she reflected. Even before the flagrant demo, the woman said she and her boyfriend suffered through three years of neglect. But Ms. Wilson and Mr. Louis claim the apartment costing $1,200 a month was always riddled with rodents and leaks. The tenants suspect the space was also illegally subdivided. (Building records show numerous “illegal conversions” of both a basement and cellar at the address.) “Like, from the moment we rented it — we had nothing but problems,” Ms. Wilson explained. “And [landlord] basically kind of had us, like, stuck, you know, that’s why we had to fix our own things and he was still wanting money.”‘It’s My House’At 8 p.m. — two days before Christmas Day — a tenant was pinged by their Ring camera. The doorbell device was prompted to record when an ear-piercing drilling noise was suddenly blaring. Upon a closer look at the situation in real-time, the tenant saw their front gate and front door locks being “drilled and sawed off”, the criminal complaint reads. Devora Shabtai, the 62-year-old landlord, in tandem with a locksmith, then allegedly entered the East 69th Street home in Bergen Beach. Gobsmacked, the tenant protested their frustration with the pair walking into the home without permission. Ms. Shabtai allegedly snapped back through the device: “It’s my house.”The resident then rushed to the home and discovered all the locks “were changed”, the papers say.Bedroom left with holes in the walls. Shantel WilsonWhen cops were called, they determined the landlord crossed the legal line and she was hit with unlawful eviction, criminal mischief, and criminal trespass.The Sun’s attempts to reach Ms. Shabtai and her attorney were not immediately returned. ‘I’m Going Back To Sue Her’Sometimes the landlord may not be a slumlord. Adel Nabil, 60, was named in a complaint from an incident that occurred on July 13 last year. Authorities charged him with unlawful eviction for cutting off the gas along with the hot water for two months — and all without notice for the property on 107th Street in Flushing. However, when reached by the Sun, Mr. Nabil maintained he sold it a long time ago.“I don’t even own that property anymore,” he maintains. “I owned it before and had it for about four months, and then I sold it.”Moreover, he believes the case against him is dead on arrival. “It’s going to be dismissed,” he ensured. He’s basing this on filed documents proving he severed ties to the property.Indeed, a deed of sale reviewed by the Sun shows Liberty Avenue Holding Inc. (claimed to be owned by Nabil) selling the two-family dwelling in question to Rushmore Equities Inc. on Feb. 25, 2022.Rushmore Equities Inc.’s principal Lauren Matis (who took over the reins of the entity last year) confirmed she’s been dealing with the tenants’ — a married couple — grievances detailed in the criminal complaint. “I’ve been at the property myself as well, just to make sure that that’s not what’s going on,” she told the Sun. “I was aware of what they were complaining about, and I was also bringing people to fix, to try to fix whatever things.”Ms. Matis claims that the tenants haven’t been plagued with a heatless, waterless home. “They’re making it more bigger of a thing,” she added. If proven true, it would mean that Mr. Nabil’s (the accused landlord) arrest was affected more than three years after he sold the property. “I already submitted all the documents of me not being the owner,” he reflected about his court appearance, adding, “It’s a criminal complaint, yes, but now I’m going back to sue her.”‘I Don’t Want Her To Be With Me’Quing Guang Zhao exhibited some of his impairment issues when he appeared for his court hearing in January. Because when the case was heard in court on that day, the suspect at first failed to answer direct questions about locking out his wife from their home. “I’m hungry,” he announced and then repeated, “I’m hungry.”His defense attorney stepped in and pleaded with the judge to loosen the order of protection imposed on the 93-year-old man and explained how he’s stricken with hearing issues and blindness. The elderly man apparently needs to live in the home because, the lawyer emoted, he “has nowhere else to go and no family.”The judge was swayed, agreeing to put Mr. Zhao under a limited order of protection. It essentially allows Mr. Zhao to live in the home with his wife. However, the judge thundered home that Mr. Zhao “cannot assault, menace, harass, threaten, stalk or commit a crime against her.”When prompted if he understood, Mr. Zhao went off the rails a bit, pleading to the judge that he wants her gone. “I don’t want her to be with me,” he said. “I feel unsafe.”But the judge implored him to be aware that he could not “exclude her from the residence.”Mr. Zhao then appealed to the judge to empathize with his romantic woes. “I want to divorce her,” he said. And yet the judge kept trying to make sure that Mr. Zhao understood the new parameters of the limited order. Mr. Zhao finally admitted, “Yes.”But again, Mr. Zhao expressed his displeasure about his nuptials with the heartbreaker of a woman. “It is a marriage fraud,” Mr. Zhao crowed. “And she’s to be deported.”

‘It Is a Marriage Fraud’: Man, 93, Busted for Booting Wife Out of Queens Home

‘It Is a Marriage Fraud’: Man, 93, Busted for Booting Wife Out of Queens Home

More from the New York Sun

Oklahoma Rejects Proposed Jewish Charter School After Federal Court Rules in School’s Favor

Can Sparkling Save California Wine?

Kimberly Guilfoyle Resigns as Ambassador to Greece After Trump Asked Her To Go

‘East of Eden,’ Even With a Magnificent Florence Pugh, Is Far From Television Paradise

Secret Service Sees ‘Massive Increase’ in Violent Threats, Challenging Americans To Restore the Taboos That Bind

Israeli Boy, 14, Killed and 24 Wounded When Unexploded Hezbollah Cluster Munition Detonates During School Hike

Saudi Arabia Threatens Retaliation as Major Airlines Suspend Riyadh Flights Following Deadly Houthi Attack

Trump Says He’s ‘Looking At’ Firing Ambassador to Greece, Don Jr.’s Ex, Kimberly Guilfoyle Following Damning Reports on Her Behavior

More from the New York Sun

Oklahoma Rejects Proposed Jewish Charter School After Federal Court Rules in School’s Favor

Can Sparkling Save California Wine?

Kimberly Guilfoyle Resigns as Ambassador to Greece After Trump Asked Her To Go

‘East of Eden,’ Even With a Magnificent Florence Pugh, Is Far From Television Paradise

Secret Service Sees ‘Massive Increase’ in Violent Threats, Challenging Americans To Restore the Taboos That Bind

Israeli Boy, 14, Killed and 24 Wounded When Unexploded Hezbollah Cluster Munition Detonates During School Hike

Saudi Arabia Threatens Retaliation as Major Airlines Suspend Riyadh Flights Following Deadly Houthi Attack

Trump Says He’s ‘Looking At’ Firing Ambassador to Greece, Don Jr.’s Ex, Kimberly Guilfoyle Following Damning Reports on Her Behavior