You may have heard the news the New York Attorney General Letitia James has been referred to the DOJ for possible prosecution for mortgage fraud. And you might be wondering who uncovered this fraud?
None other than my friend, Sam E. Antar. He first started reporting on James back in December 2024, exposing how she liked to book luxury travel, paid for with campaign funds. But the fun didn’t stop there. Sam then reported in February that James owned a Virginia single-family home that she valued at $100k to $150k in her financial disclosure, but had mortgages on the property totaling more than $400k. Things kept getting better. Next, Sam found that James attested she was going to occupy the home as a second residence, but her NY state financial disclosures designated the property as an investment. He also found discrepancies with the mortgage records.
Then things got even spicier for Letitia James in March, as Sam reported on a phantom mortgage at First Savings Bank, a vanishing Citibank HELOC, a changing Citizens Bank loan, and a missing mortgage from OVM Financial. He put together this fabulous table of problems:
Just when you think the story about the NY AG can’t get any better, Sam reveals additional apparent fraud. Letitia owns a property that is listed as a 5-family dwelling in the certificate of occupancy. Yet the mortgage documents identify it as a 4-family dwelling, which allows it to be classified as residential, rather than commercial. At 5 units, the building would be considered commercial and subject to higher interest rates and stricter lending requirements. Then building permits repeat the lie of 4 units in the building.
This is all curious, given Ms. James’s press conference where she said “no one is above the law.” Donald Trump and his companies were fined $355 million in a lawsuit brought by New York AG Letitia James for allegedly misrepresenting the value of certain properties.
The fun never seems to stop, as Sam then uncovered over $41k in private charter flights that Letitia James took using taxpayer money. The NY AG’s office paid for 6 private charter flights through a company that no other NY state agency has used in the last decade. And some of these flights just happened to occur when Ms. James was campaigning!
But then maybe the best bit of shenanigans reported first by Sam E. Antar… The shenanigans occurred just a few weeks before the Trump fraud trial that she was so giddy about, Letitia James signed and filed a power of attorney form in Virginia declaring her intent to occupy a home in Virginia as her principal residence. If you know anything about mortgages, you know that interest rates are more favorable when a home is your primary residence versus a second home or investment property.
The lie about the principal residence creates two interesting problems:
- The mortgage documents for the home at 604 Sterling Street in Norfolk require that both borrowers (Ms. James and her co-owner Shamice Thompson-Hairston) make the property their principal residence within 60 days and maintain it for at least one year. This would mean that Ms. James had to make it her residence by about October 30, 2023, the middle of the Trump trial in New York. It does not appear that Ms. James took residence of the home.
- If Ms. James did make the Virginia home her primary residence, then this would likely go against the New York rules requiring the Attorney General to be a resident of the state. The rules require residency in the state of New York for the five years preceding the election of the Attorney General, and that the officeholder be an inhabitant of the sate while in office.
Sam continued his original reporting on Letitia James’s financial irregularities, saying:
Letitia James has built a political career on accountability and transparency. But when it comes to her own real estate dealings, the paper trail tells a different story.
Donald Trump got in on the fun by posting about Sam’s reporting on Truth Social:
And now Letitia James has been referred to the DOJ for possible criminal charges. Read about the referral letter here.
Sam E. Antar is an amazing fraud investigator. Don’t be surprised if he uncovers more shenanigans by the NY AG.
