Man exploits New York hotel tenancy laws leading to fraud charges

A man successfully exploited New York’s housing laws to live rent-free in the renowned New Yorker Hotel for five years, even collecting rent from other tenants, before being charged with fraud for his boundless greed. Claiming to be the owner, he was eventually arrested and accused of filing false property records.

A 48 year old man expressed astonishment when police, armed and in bulletproof vests, appeared at his boyfriend’s apartment, an incident he initially mistook for a Valentine’s Day surprise.

Barreto’s fraud charges and criminal defamation are just the latest chapters in a years-long legal saga that began when he moved from Los Angeles to New York after his boyfriend told him about loopholes that allow single-room occupants in pre-1969 buildings to demand a six-month lease from landlords.

Barreto and his boyfriend paid about US$200 to stay one night at the New Yorker Hotel, which has over 1,000 rooms in a building erected in 1930. He then claimed tenant status after this one-night hotel stay and requested a lease, leading to his immediate expulsion, Barreto said.

“The next day, I went to court, and though the judge dismissed it, I appealed to the Supreme Court (of the state) and won by default because the building owner’s lawyer didn’t show up.”

The judge ordered the hotel to give Barreto the keys, and he lived there until July 2023 without paying rent as the owner never engaged in lease negotiations nor could they evict him, reported Sanook.

Fake deed

Although the court allowed Barreto to possess a hotel room for residence, he didn’t stop there. In 2019, he uploaded a fake deed to the city’s website, claiming the entire building had been transferred from the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, the 1976 property purchaser, to Mickey Barreto, himself.

Then, as the supposed owner, Barreto tried to collect money from various agencies, including demanding rent from a hotel tenant, registering the hotel under his name with New York City’s Environmental Protection Department to pay water and sewage bills, and requesting the hotel’s bank account be transferred to him, said Alvin Bragg, Manhattan District Attorney.

“As alleged, Mickey Barreto repeatedly defrauded, claiming ownership of the New Yorker Hotel, one of the city’s most iconic locations.”

Barreto, however, contends that the judge who granted him possession of the hotel room had indirectly given him the whole building, as no detailed subdivision was ever made.

“I never intended to commit any fraud, and I never got any money from this.”

The New Yorker Hotel, just a block away from Madison Square Garden and Penn Station, has been one of the largest hotels for decades. Its towering Art Deco building and large red New Yorker sign make it a recognisable landmark often captured in photographs.