A man who succeeded in using a New York City housing law to live rent-free in an iconic hotel has been charged with fraud after he claimed to own it.

For five years, a New York City man managed to live rent-free in a landmark Manhattan hotel by exploiting an obscure local housing law.

But prosecutors this week said Mickey Barreto went too far when he filed paperwork claiming ownership of the entire New Yorker Hotel building — and tried to charge another tenant rent.

On Wednesday, he was arrested and charged with filing false property records. But Barreto, 48, says he was surprised when police showed up at his boyfriend’s apartment with guns and bullet-proof shields. As far as he is concerned, it should be a civil case, not a criminal one.

  • Th4tGuyII@kbin.social
    133·
    9 months ago

    Imagine completely legally swindling your way into living rent free in one of New York’s most prestigious hotels only to completely fuck it up by trying to fraudulently claim you own the building

    • Zorg@lemmings.world
      63·
      9 months ago

      It’s all that warrior training bullshit. De-escalation is not prioritized, instead they are told anyone might be out to kill them, so they have to be ready to murder them first.

    • xapr@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      5·
      9 months ago

      Did you see the body cam video released a couple of days ago of the Florida cop who went completely berserk when he heard an acorn hit his car? Definitely overly dramatic…

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    37·
    9 months ago

    This is such a weird story…

    “I said ’Oh, I thought you were doing something for Valentine’s Day to spice up the relationship until I saw the female officers,’” Barreto recalled telling his boyfriend.

    The judge ordered the hotel to give Baretto a key. He said he lived there until July 2023 without paying any rent because the building’s owners never wanted to negotiate a lease with him, but they couldn’t kick him out.

    But they say he didn’t stop there: In 2019, he uploaded a fake deed to a city website, purporting to transfer ownership of the entire building to himself from the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, which bought the property in 1976. The church was founded in South Korea by a self-proclaimed messiah, the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

    Inventor Nikola Tesla lived at the hotel for for a decade. NBC broadcasted from the hotel’s Terrace Room. Boxers, including Muhammad Ali, stayed there when they had bouts at the Garden. It closed as a hotel in 1972 and was used for years for church purposes before part of the building reopened as a hotel in 1994.

  • ki77erb@lemmy.world
    26·
    9 months ago

    “I never intended to commit any fraud. I don’t believe I ever committed any fraud,”

    The lie detector test determined… that was a lie.

  • Crikeste@lemm.ee
    23·
    9 months ago

    This sounds far too much like George Santos for it to not be George Santos.

  • flx
    15·
    9 months ago

    The original owners were the moonies lol

  • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
    7·
    9 months ago

    I won the appeal,” Barreto said, adding that at a crucial point in the case, lawyers for the building’s owners didn’t show up, allowing him to win by default.

    The judge ordered the hotel to give Barreto a key. He said he lived there until July 2023 without paying any rent because the building’s owners never wanted to negotiate a lease with him, but they couldn’t kick him out

    Hard to feel sympathy for the owners when this is their approach. He paid $200 for the room the first night, seems like they could have just charged $200/night in perpetuity and he’d eventually leave because that’s $6k/mo. They just didn’t care enough to bother.