Michael Cohen accused of faking documents to flip rent-stabilized apartments

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

Housing group claims Cohen tried to drive out tenants in order to hike rents and lied to get construction permits

Erin Durkin in New York
Mon 27 Aug 2018 15.22 EDT

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, has been accused of filing false documents for three New York City apartment buildings, buying the buildings for $10m and then flipping them for $27m.

According to an investigation by the Housing Rights Initiative (HRI), Cohen and his partners tried to drive out tenants whose rents were kept down by rent stabilization laws so they could hike the rent, the watchdog group said on Monday.

Cohen, through a managing agent, filed for construction permits claiming that the buildings were vacant and had no rent-stabilized tenants – when in fact dozens of such tenants were living there, according to tax records, the group said.

Separately, Cohen pleaded guilty last week in federal court to eight criminal counts including fraud and campaign finance violations, directly implicating the president in a crime.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/27/michael-cohen-new-york-housing-false-documents-investigation

[Scurrilous]

1. A lot of that going around...

Kushner Family Real Estate Company Fined $210,000 for Filing False Documents

<snip>

"The Kushner family real estate company has been fined $210,000 by New York City regulators following an Associated Press investigation that showed it routinely filed false documents with the city claiming it had no rent-regulated tenants in its buildings when it, in fact, had hundreds.

The city buildings department on Monday fined the Kushner Cos. for filing 42 false applications for construction work on more than a dozen buildings when presidential adviser Jared Kushner ran the business.

The false documents allowed the company to escape extra scrutiny during construction that watchdog group Housing Rights Initiative has said led to harassment of low-paying, rent-regulated tenants to get them to leave."

http://time.com/5379666/kushner-family-real-estate-false-documents/

[ToxMarz]

2. Wasn't Hannity the third of three total clients Cohen had

And didn't Hannity say he only asked him Real Estate advise?

[Scurrilous]

3. I wonder what the advise was?

In Georgia, Sean Hannity is just another landlord hiking the rent

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-hannity-landlord-20180427-story.html

<snip>

"Fox News host Sean Hannity is one of the most recognizable media figures in America. He has the ear of President Trump. His show is one of the most popular on cable news.

But you wouldn't know it from talking to the tenants at the Meadows, a modest neighborhood of duplexes in Lithia Springs, about 15 miles west of downtown Atlanta.

"Who?" Keith Jones, a 62-year-old pipe layer, said blankly in an interview this week.

"I don't know who he is," said Sherrice Rouster, a 38-year-old self-employed childcare worker and tax preparer.

Hannity is their landlord, and he's raising their rent — a lot."