The mother of Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz and City Councilman Ritchie Torres announced that a cease and desist letter from the state has been sent to a known con-artist who posed as a government official in an attempt to defraud Junior’s family.

The subject of the cease and desist letter, Dr. R.A. Gregg, is a 38-year-old Staten Island native with a track record of scams stretching back over a decade. According to Torres, Gregg approached Feliz in August and convinced her to sign a letter giving him power to raise funds on behalf of the family in the aftermath of her son’s brutal murder by alleged Trinitario gang members in June.

“I didn’t get nothing from the people,” Feliz said in a press conference at Torres’ District Office on East Fordham Road on Oct. 1. “Everybody talking, talking, talking… but I didn’t get nothing.”

On June 5, fifteen days before Junior’s murder, Torres arranged for the City Council’s Office of the General Counsel to send a cease and desist letter to Gregg in June demanding he stop calling his organization “The New York City Council Community Affairs Bureau” and using any City Council-related titles or symbols. Gregg raised money, collected dues, and operated as a community organizer under the title of “Chief” of the fraudulent “bureau.”

“He had been on my radar,” Torres said. “I saw he had Leandra sign under false pretenses a letter authorizing him to raise funds on behalf of the family [and] I knew this was the latest manifestation of his fraud.”

When Gregg approached Junior’s family in August, he identified himself as the “commissioner” of “The New York State Community Affairs Bureau.” He had Guzman-Feliz’s mother and father, Lesandro Guzman-Feliz, sign a letter to a number of fundraiser demanding they stop using Junior’s name in their fundraising. On Aug. 6, Torres penned a letter to Alphonso David, Counsel to the Governor, requesting a cease and desist order be sent to Gregg over his apparent rebranding and fraudulent behavior. According to Torres, Gregg is now under criminal investigation.

“The latest victim of his elaborate scheme is the family of Leandro Junior Guzman Feliz, who lost his life in a savage act of gang violence more than a month ago,” Torres wrote. “I have enclosed for your review a letter that Mr. Gregg bamboozled the family of Junior Guzman into signing under false pretenses.”

On Sept. 10, in a letter to Gregg and his associates, an associate attorney from the Office of General Counsel in the state’s Department of State stated that Gregg was in violation of a number of New York State corporation laws. Specifically, provisions that require not-for-profit corporations not be named in a way which will trick people “into believing that the corporation is an agency or instrumentality of the… state of New York.”

Gregg has a history of fraudulent behavior, dating back to 2007 when he stole almost $200,000 by posing as an attorney and orchestrated the sale of a friend’s Staten Island home, according to SILive.com. In 2010, Gregg was sentenced to up to six years in prison for stealing the money, including $30,000 he used to settle gambling debts at Atlantic City’s Borgata Casino. Gregg’s father was an administrative law judge on Staten Island for years and is the founder of the law firm Gregg & Associates. The younger Gregg’s businesses are registered to the same address as his father’s law firm, according to New York State filings.

“I would never use someone’s criminal record to stigmatize that individual,” Torres said. “My concern is his present conduct, is his pattern of defrauding members of the public.”

The Sept. 10 letter from the state instructs Gregg to rename his business within 30 days. At the time of publication, Gregg’s LinkedIn page still identifies him as the “Commissioner” of “New York State Community Affairs Bureau” and the website for his organization is still online. Gregg did not respond to multiple requests for comment.