2 people accused of conspiring to steal properties from Detroit residents sentenced

A former director of a Detroit nonprofit and an ex-Wayne County employee accused of conspiring to steal properties from local residents facing potential tax foreclosure have been sentenced, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan said.

A judge on Wednesday sentenced Zina Thomas, 62, to seven years and six months in prison and Jontae Jackson, 45, to five years and five months in prison in connection with the scheme, according to federal officials.

Online court records show Thomas, a former director of homeownership programs at United Community Housing Coalition, pleaded guilty on Nov. 4, 2025, to one count of federal program bribery. Jackson, an ex-taxpayer assistant with the Wayne County Treasurer's Office, pleaded guilty to one count each of convictions for conspiracy to commit bribery and aggravated identity theft on the same date.

According to court documents, the scheme involved "homes being removed from the Wayne County property tax foreclosure list so that ownership in those homes could be fraudulently transferred from the homeowners, without their authority, to others via forged quitclaim deeds."

Cornell Law School says a quitclaim deed lets someone transfer ownership they have in a property to another person without representing that the title is good. 

From around March 2023 through September 2023, Thomas gave "multiple bribe payments" to Jackson in exchange for the former Wayne County employee removing "a number of properties" from tax foreclosure status, court documents said. According to federal officials, the value of the properties was around $6.4 million.

The attorney's office said the properties would be diverted to Thomas's control through the fraudulent quitclaim deeds. Thomas, who prosecutors said was a former real estate agent, would then sell them to third parties.