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I won the appeal,” Barreto said, adding that at a crucial point in the case, lawyers for the building’s owners didn’t show up, allowing him to win by default.

The judge ordered the hotel to give Barreto a key. He said he lived there until July 2023 without paying any rent because the building’s owners never wanted to negotiate a lease with him, but they couldn’t kick him out

Hard to feel sympathy for the owners when this is their approach. He paid $200 for the room the first night, seems like they could have just charged $200/night in perpetuity and he'd eventually leave because that's $6k/mo. They just didn't care enough to bother.

Bro was living the sovcit dream but wanted more.

This sounds far too much like George Santos for it to not be George Santos.

Would he have been able to pass that room down to others when he died had he not pulled this own the building bullshit?

“I never intended to commit any fraud. I don’t believe I ever committed any fraud,”

The lie detector test determined... that was a lie.

The moral of this story is don't shit where you eat. Dude had it good

What an idiot i wish i was that guy

Imagine completely legally swindling your way into living rent free in one of New York's most prestigious hotels only to completely fuck it up by trying to fraudulently claim you own the building

The original owners were the moonies lol

This is such a weird story...

“I said ’Oh, I thought you were doing something for Valentine’s Day to spice up the relationship until I saw the female officers,’” Barreto recalled telling his boyfriend.

The judge ordered the hotel to give Baretto a key. He said he lived there until July 2023 without paying any rent because the building’s owners never wanted to negotiate a lease with him, but they couldn’t kick him out.

But they say he didn’t stop there: In 2019, he uploaded a fake deed to a city website, purporting to transfer ownership of the entire building to himself from the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, which bought the property in 1976. The church was founded in South Korea by a self-proclaimed messiah, the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

Inventor Nikola Tesla lived at the hotel for for a decade. NBC broadcasted from the hotel’s Terrace Room. Boxers, including Muhammad Ali, stayed there when they had bouts at the Garden. It closed as a hotel in 1972 and was used for years for church purposes before part of the building reopened as a hotel in 1994.

Guns and bullet proof shields?

Fucking cops are overly dramatic.

Did bro claim squatting rights lol. He might acually win.