A man goes on trial in Brooklyn federal court today, accused of scamming families in Brooklyn’s Hasidic community in an alleged $18 million mortgage swindle.

Eliyahu Ezagui conned Crown Heights families into believing that he was creating an exclusive Jewish community in two East New York buildings, prosecutors charge.

But after the families paid for the apartments and moved in, Ezagui, his wife, his parents and two business partners remortgaged the properties with five different banks by keeping a hold of the deeds, according to the indictment.