Should I take the sublease or not?

I and the current tenants were planning to get the lease transfer done yesterday. However, because of sort of misunderstanding, we could not make it before the leasing office closed. And this early morning one of the tenant is leaving for NY for work and the problem is that the landlord require all of us (current leaser and new subleasor) to be present to do the lease transfer. They would not accept if we fax the document to be signed by the other tenant, therefore, the lease transfer can never be made. We then have a thought if we could just make a sublease agreement without letting the landlord know. The sublease is only for 3 months so we thought there would not be any major problem. However, both the current tenants require me to pay the deposit, in the amount of $500 (rent is $750/mo) if I want to take the sublease. They just want to secure the deposit so that they can assure that I will clean the apartment. Do you think it is safe to pay the security deposit to them?

Considering that this sublease would not be legal and both the current tenants are in NY by the time the sublease ends, I was a little concerned if something might happen later and I could not get the security deposit back.

Unreal! I'm sure the person who left KNEW they were leaving long before yesterday. Duh.

So they want to move out on you and get their deposit back, too. Tell them you will send it to them at the end of the 3 months. It sounds like they are leaving you "holding the bag" and shirking their legal responsibilities. What a crock. 3 months or nothing, I wouldn't give them a dime.