From cries of #DontMuteDC in our nation's capital to the price inflation of the late Biggie Smalls' childhood home in New York, we've seen the harrowing effects of gentrification across the country. For one Bedford-Stuyvesant man, however, a misrepresented deal could mean years of turmoil and thousands in legal fees to get his home of 30 years back.

Dairus Griffiths, a Jamaica-born man who has called New York home for the last several decades, is at risk of losing his house due to a shady deal from real estate speculators. According to a Monday report from The New York Daily News, Griffiths was coerced into selling his Brooklyn brownstone five years ago, finally considering offers after financial setbacks became too much of a burden.

In 2014, the 65-year-old was approached by a gentleman named Eli Mashieh with an opportunity to sell his home for $630,000. An employee of August West Development, The Daily News reports that West Indian comrades accompanied Mashieh to help sweeten the deal. After some negotiations, Griffiths obliged.

"We did the paperwork outside, on top of a car," Griffiths told the publication. While he never acquired a copy of the contract, Mashieh did give the plumber by trade his business card.

"Eli — he kept bringing other people of the same ethnic background as us saying, 'Oh, they'll help you, they'll help you keep it if you sell to them," Griffiths' daughter Doris Briggs said to The Daily News. "They'll help you keep the house."

Per finance records provided by New York City, the house is valued at $1.5 million, well under what Griffiths relinquished his property for. It wasn't long before Griffiths realized he had been swindled, a development even a notary who signed the contract echoed to the news site.

"I don't do contracts," notary George Aig Seaton said regarding his signature on the forms. "I didn't notarize no sale of no house."

In addition to Mashieh's name on the contract, the documents also contain a gentleman named Raj Maddiwar, who has been convicted of scams in the past. In summer of 2018, Maddiwar was convicted of deceit for doing just what Mashieh did to Griffiths, conning cash-strapped individuals into selling their homes for a lower price.

When Griffiths told Mashieh he no longer wanted to follow through on the sale, the trickster barked over the phone, "No, you signed the contract. You’re going to sell."

The attempt to cancel the sale has been tough, and not to mention costly. Briggs says she was quoted $25,000 in legal fees to carry out this operation, however, their budget does not allow for them to hire attorneys. Even court documents showing Maddiwar's involvement were not enough to sway judges to reverse the decision.

Facing eviction with nowhere to go, Griffiths says he has exhausted all of his resources, including contacting the district attorney's office and the state attorney general.

"They take advantage of distressed homeowners," the exasperated father said. "Something should be done about it."

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