The Tale of Two Slumlords

One morning in February 2014, Silveria Hormiga, who lived at 324 Central Avenue in Bushwick, a rapidly gentrifying area of Brooklyn, left for a doctor’s appointment.

By the time she returned at 11 a.m., it appeared that her apartment had undergone some rapid changes as well.

“Upon gaining entry,” said an indictment unsealed on Thursday in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, she “observed that the apartment was destroyed — the kitchen and bathroom were demolished and rendered unusable.”

In what prosecutors and New York City officials described as a particularly egregious example of tenant hounding, the owners, Joel and Aaron Israel, who are brothers, were arrested on Thursday on charges that they intentionally wrecked tenants’ apartments at 324 Central and other buildings to try to drive residents out and also lied to city officials about the work they were doing.

In court on Thursday afternoon, Joel Israel, 34, and Aaron Israel, 37, pleaded not guilty to seven charges, including fraud, burglary, grand larceny, submitting false documents and unlawful eviction. Judge Danny K. Chun set bail at $75,000 for the younger Mr. Israel, and $50,000 for his brother.

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