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Around the time Murray West, 85, was in the hospital recovering from a heart attack and stroke, Yusef (Jimmy) Danou took West's secondary residence on Cass Lake, authorities said. (Photos by PATRICIA BECK/Detroit Free Press)

Murray West survived the Nazis and the Russians during World War II, but nothing in life prepared the 85-year-old Waterford man for Yusef (Jimmy) Danou.

In May 2003, around the time West was hospitalized for a heart attack and stroke, Danou, 40, a white-collar criminal from West Bloomfield, forged West's name on a phony deed and took West's secondary residence on Cass Lake, authorities said.

For a time, Danou convinced officials that he was the owner of the four-bedroom home.

But eventually, Waterford officials became suspicious.

On Feb. 2, Danou pleaded guilty to identity theft in U.S. District Court in Port Huron. While he sits in jail facing the prospects of a 3-year prison term, West's lawyer is battling in Oakland County Circuit Court to get West's house back.

The lawyer also is trying to remove $408,000 in liens that mortgage companies slapped on the property after Danou defaulted on loans.

West said he met Danou in early 2003 after posting a sale sign at his house in the 3800 block of Lake Front.

Though Danou offered to buy the house for $750,000, West said Danou's $27,000 down payment check bounced. West said he agreed to let Danou rent the house until he could assemble a down payment, but some of the rent checks bounced, too.

West said he realized something was amiss when he got out of the hospital and discovered that Danou was renovating the house and that Danou's contractor was driving West's 2000 Ford pickup.

In May 2004, township officials became suspicious about the alleged property transfer and alerted police.

Although Danou insisted that West had sold him the house, his story fell apart when investigators questioned his sister and father, whose signatures were on the deed as witnesses to the transaction.

By then, Danou already had been indicted in U.S. District Court in Detroit for defrauding banks in 1999-2000 by stealing people's identities, applying for phony car loans in their names and pocketing the proceeds at his used car lot in Detroit.

In August 2004, he was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution. He previously was convicted of bad check and bank fraud charges.

"We're not denying that Mr. West's name was forged on the deed," said Danou's lawyer, David Steingold of Detroit. "But there's more to this case than meets the eye."

Steingold said Danou deeded the house back to West, but West's lawyer won't record it.

The lawyer, Daniel Zolkower of Southfield, said he can't record the deed until the mortgage companies lift the liens.

Contact DAVID ASHENFELTER at 313-223-4490 or ashenf@freepress.com.

Detroit Free Press

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