48-year-old who lived rent-free in Manhattan hotel for 5 years pushed his luck too far: claiming he owned the whole thing, DA says

District attorneys this week stated Mickey Barreto went too far when he submitted documentation declaring ownership of the whole New Yorker Hotel structure– and attempted to charge another occupant lease.

On Wednesday, he was detained and charged with filing incorrect residential or commercial property records. Barreto, 48, states he was amazed when cops revealed up at his sweetheart’s home with weapons and bullet-proof guards. As far as he is worried, it ought to be a civil case, not a criminal one.

“I stated ‘Oh, I believed you were doing something for Valentine’s Day to enliven the relationship up until I saw the female officers,'” Barreto remembered informing his sweetheart.

Barreto’s indictment on scams and criminal contempt charges is simply the most recent chapter in the years-long legal legend that started when he and his sweetheart paid about $200 to lease among the more than 1,000 spaces in the imposing Art Deco structure integrated in 1930.

Barreto states he had actually simply transferred to New York from Los Angeles when his partner informed him about a loophole that permits residents of single spaces in structures built before 1969 to require a six-month lease. Barreto declared that since he ‘d spent for a night in the hotel, he counted as an occupant.

He requested a lease and the hotel immediately kicked him out.

“So I litigated the next day. The judge rejected. I interested the (state) Supreme Court and I won the appeal,” Barreto stated, including that at a critical point in the event, attorneys for the structure’s owners didn’t appear, enabling him to win by default.

The judge purchased the hotel to offer Baretto a secret. He stated he lived there till July 2023 without paying any lease due to the fact that the structure’s owners never ever wished to work out a lease with him, however they could not kick him out.

Manhattan district attorneys acknowledge that the real estate court offered Barreto “ownership” of his space. They state he didn’t stop there: In 2019, he published a phony deed to a city site, professing to move ownership of the whole structure to himself from the Holy Spirit Association for theMarriage of World Christianity,which purchased the home in 1976. The church was established in South Korea by a self-proclaimed messiah, the lateRev. Sun Myung Moon

Barreto then attempted to charge different entities as the owner of the structure “consisting of requiring lease from among the hotel’s renters, signing up the hotel under his name with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection for water and sewage payments, and requiring the hotel’s bank transfer its accounts to him,” the district attorney’s workplace stated in the declaration.

“As declared, Mickey Barreto consistently and fraudulently declared ownership of among the City’s many renowned landmarks, the New Yorker Hotel,” stated Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Found a block from Madison Square Garden and Penn Station, the New Yorker has actually never ever been amongst the city’s most attractive hotels, however it has actually long been amongst its biggest. Its big, red “New Yorker” indication makes it an oft-photographed landmark. Innovator Nikola Tesla lived at the hotel for a years. NBC transmitted from the hotel’s Terrace Room. Fighters, consisting of Muhammad Ali, remained there when they had bouts at the Garden. It closed as a hotel in 1972 and was utilized for many years for church functions before part of the structure resumed as a hotel in 1994.

TheMarriage Churchtaken legal action against Barreto in 2019 over the deed claim, including his representations on LinkedIn as the structure’s owner. The case is continuous, however a judge ruled that Barreto can’t represent himself as the owner in the meantime.

A Unification Church representative decreased to comment about his arrest, pointing out the continuous civil case.

Because case, Baretto argued that the judge who provided him “belongings” of his space indirectly provided him the whole structure since it had actually never ever been partitioned.

“I never ever meant to dedicate any scams. I do not think I ever dedicated any scams,” Barreto stated. “And I never ever made a cent out of this.”

Barreto stated his legal wrangling is advocacy focused on rejecting revenues to theMarriage ChurchThe church, understood for performing mass wedding events, has actually been taken legal action against over its recruiting techniques and slammed by some over its friendly relationship with North Korea, where Moon was born.

He stated he has actually never ever employed a legal representative for the civil cases and has actually constantly represented himself. On Wednesday, he protected a criminal defense lawyer.