A New York City man who attempted to claim ownership of the New Yorker Hotel has pleaded guilty to fraud, ending a lengthy legal saga involving an obscure tenant law that allowed the man to live rent-free for years in the Manhattan hotel. Mickey Barreto entered the plea on February 18, admitting that he had forged property records in an effort to take ownership of the hotel. That effort was, at least on paper, partially successful. According to Barreto, he paid $200 in 2018 to rent one of the more than 1,000 rooms in the towering, oft-photographed Art Deco hotel. Barreto then requested a lease, claiming his one night stay entitled him to protections under a city housing law that applies to single-room occupants of buildings constructed before 1969. When the hotel rebuffed him, he took his case to housing court. After the hotel failed to send a lawyer to a key hearing, Barreto was awarded “possession” of the room. However, Barreto then went a step further, defrauding the state by uploading a fake deed to a city website that purported to transfer ownership of the entire building to him. Barreto then attempted to collect rent from a hotel tenant and demanded that the hotel’s bank transfer its accounts to him. He was eventually evicted from the premises in 2024 and charged with multiple counts of felony fraud. He was later found unfit to stand trial and ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment. As part of the plea, Barreto was sentenced to a 6-month prison sentence that he has already served, along with 5 years of probation.
