Visitor publish by Joel Gilbert
Letitia James’s New York State mortgage data point out that she dedicated mortgage fraud on a $200,000 “Credit score Line Mortgage” with Residents Financial institution in 2021.
Like different mortgages, it requires a signed word, a mortgage doc, and recording with the county clerk.
The mortgage doc reveals that James misrepresented her five-unit house constructing as a single-family dwelling.
This false declare allowed James to keep away from considerably increased business mortgage closing prices and the next rate of interest.
In New York, the variety of models in a property determines whether or not a mortgage qualifies as a residential mortgage with decrease rates of interest (1 to 4 household dwellings) or whether or not it’s a business/multifamily constructing mortgage with increased rates of interest and shutting prices (5 or extra dwelling models).
The official Certificates of Occupancy for Letitia James’s constructing at 296 Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn describes it as a “FIVE (5) FAMILY DWELLING.”
That designation is the one and solely controlling authorized authority for unit rely.
But for 20 years after shopping for the property in 2001, James refinanced a number of occasions whereas claiming the constructing had solely 4 models.
This misrepresentation allowed James to qualify for decrease residential rates of interest she was not entitled to obtain.
Even on her most up-to-date refinancing on August 23, 2019, the mortgage doc lists 4 models.
On June 21, 2021, Letitia James signed the $200,000 Credit score Line Mortgage with Residents Financial institution for a 25-year time period. On the primary web page of the settlement, underneath “PROPERTY DATA,” the Property Kind is listed as “DWELLING ONLY—1 FAMILY.”
This went far past James’s previous misrepresentations, as she diminished the quantity to only one.
The rationale for the overkill seems clear: business mortgage closing prices will be as much as seven occasions increased than residential, and rates of interest for business properties usually run 1 to three share factors increased.
The Residents mortgage doc reveals James’s “Charges and Taxes” have been solely $4,070, masking metropolis and county taxes, a Tax Motion Service Price (TASF), and an MTA surcharge.
Had the property been appropriately recorded as 5 dwelling models, James would have confronted a business mortgage recording tax of roughly 2.8% of the mortgage quantity, or about $5,600.
As well as, she would have been required to pay for a full business appraisal of round $5,000, title insurance coverage, a survey, business underwriting, an origination payment, and authorized prices.
Altogether, the closing prices would have landed in a spread from $20,000 to $30,000, or 10 to fifteen% of the mortgage quantity.
Underneath New York Penal Regulation Article 187, fraud involving a mortgage of greater than $50,000 qualifies as Mortgage Fraud within the Second Diploma (PL § 187.20), a Class C felony punishable by as much as 15 years in jail.
Nonetheless, as a result of Residents Financial institution is a federally insured FDIC establishment, underneath 18 U.S.C. § 1014, James may see a possible sentence of as much as 30 years in jail and heavy fines.
James might have beforehand been counting on statutes of limitations expirations to defend her.
In The Gateway Pundit in March 2025, I reported that James pretended to be married to her father in 1983 to qualify for a mortgage and that she obtained a US authorities HAMP mortgage in 2011 by falsely claiming her constructing had simply 4 models.
For normal nonviolent felony fraud, New York usually imposes a five-year statute of limitations. Underneath federal legislation (18 U.S.C. § 1014), making false statements to a financial institution/mortgage lender has a 10-year statute of limitations.
Which means that Letita James’s 2021 Residents Financial institution mortgage stays actionable till no less than June 2026.
Whether or not or not Letitia James has repaid the $200,000 mortgage, and whether or not or not Residents Financial institution suffered any damages, is irrelevant in response to James’s personal authorized requirements.
In her high-profile case in opposition to President Trump and the Trump Group, Letitia James argued that fraud is illegal even when it doesn’t produce a monetary sufferer.
In court docket filings and statements, James emphasised that the important thing problem was the misrepresentation itself and that misconduct corrupted {the marketplace} and undermined the integrity of economic establishments.
The trial choose, Justice Arthur Engoron, explicitly agreed. In his rulings, he said that whether or not banks lose cash or are repaid is irrelevant underneath New York’s fraud statutes, and that fraud in enterprise transactions doesn’t require exhibiting monetary loss to a sufferer.
Letitia James’s hypocrisy is breathtaking. After Donald Trump’s fraud conviction, on February 16, 2024, James launched an announcement stating, “When highly effective folks cheat to get higher loans, it comes on the expense of sincere and hardworking folks.
On a regular basis Individuals can not misinform a financial institution to get a mortgage to purchase a house, and in the event that they did, our authorities would throw the guide at them.
There merely can’t be totally different guidelines for various folks. As a result of regardless of how large, wealthy, or highly effective you suppose you’re, nobody is above the legislation.”
With this new revelation of her 2021 Credit score Line Mortgage fraud in opposition to Residents Financial institution, there is just one believable motion for Particular Prosecutor Ed Martin: indict New York Lawyer Basic Letitia James now for mortgage fraud, in response to state and federal legal guidelines, and in response to the prosecutorial requirements that James herself laid out for him.
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Joel Gilbert is a Los Angeles-based movie producer and president of Freeway 61 Leisure. He’s the producer of the brand new movie Roseanne Barr Is America. He’s additionally the producer of: Desires from My Actual Father, The Trayvon Hoax, Trump: The Artwork of the Insult, and lots of different movies on American politics and music icons. Gilbert is on Twitter: @JoelSGilbert.
