A New York City resident lived in the New Yorker Hotel rent-free for five years. then he allegedly claimed to own the building, prosecutors said.

Mickey Barreto, 48, allegedly filed paperwork between May 2019 and September 2023 claiming ownership of the entire landmark New York hotel and tried to charge another tenant rent, according to a release from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

“Mickey Barreto repeatedly and fraudulently claimed ownership of one of the City’s most iconic landmarks, the New Yorker Hotel,” New York District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, said in a statement. “We will not tolerate manipulation of our city’s property records by those who seek to scam the system for personal gain.”

On Wednesday, Barreto was indicted by the New York State Supreme Court with 14 counts of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree and 10 counts of second-degree criminal contempt.

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Barreto's stay at the New Yorker Hotel

The release, citing court documents, states that in June 2018, Barreto booked a room at the New Yorker Hotel for one night. The following day, Barreto requested that the hotel enter into a lease agreement with him for the room in an attempt to use a loophole in New York’s rent stabilization law.

Barreto claimed he was a tenant since he paid for a night in the hotel, the Associated Press reported.

Rent stabilization in New York City applies to buildings of six or more units built between Feb. 1, 1947 and Dec. 31, 1973. Tenants in buildings built before Feb. 1, 1947, who moved in after June 30, 1971, are also covered by rent stabilization, according to the New York State Rent Stabilization and Emergency Tenant Protection Act. The New Yorker Hotel opened on Jan. 2, 1930, the hotel website states.

When the hotel refused to give Barreto a lease, he left his belongings inside the hotel room, the press release said. The hotel gave Barreto his belongings and asked him to leave. Barreto filed a lawsuit in housing court claiming he was wrongfully evicted from the hotel. The housing court granted him a room at the hotel.

Then Barreto claimed he was the New Yorker Hotel's new owner, prosecutors say

In May 2019, Barreto uploaded documents onto the New York City Department of Finance’s Automated City Register Information System (ACRIS), claiming to transfer ownership of the New Yorker Hotel to himself, the district attorney's office revealed.

Barreto, pretending to be the owner of the hotel, demanded rent from one of the hotel’s tenants. In addition, Barreto registered the hotel under his name with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection for water and sewage payments, and demanded the hotel’s bank to transfer its accounts to him.

Demanding the owner of the New Yorker hotel, Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity , to vacate the hotel, Barreto requested that the tenants' rent payments should be sent directly to him. Also, Barreto contacted the hotel’s franchisor, Wyndham, and started conversations to have the franchise transferred to him, the press release states.

The hotel's owners filed a lawsuit against Barreto in New York County Supreme Court and successfully obtained an order forbidding Barreto from making further false filings or claiming to be the hotel's owner. Barreto appealed the decision and continued to claim that he owned the building.

In April and September 2023, Barreto filed additional false documents onto ACRIS in violation of the court’s order, to transfer ownership of the hotel to himself.