{"id":138176,"date":"2026-02-19T00:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T00:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/138176\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T00:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T00:22:09","slug":"phony-owner-of-new-yorker-hotel-admits-truth-in-court-after-trying-to-take-over-landmark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/138176\/","title":{"rendered":"Phony owner of New Yorker hotel admits truth in court after trying to take over landmark"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Manhattan man who bizarrely tried to claim ownership of the iconic New Yorker hotel<\/a> finally admitted he never owned the iconic Art Deco landmark as he was slapped with a six-month prison sentence on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Mickey Barreto, 49, pleaded guilty to forging property records after claiming he owned the historic Midtown tower between May 2019 and September 2023 in front of Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Cori Weston.<\/p>\n

The judge asked Barreto to confirm that he purposely filed a \u201cwritten instrument containing a false statement and false information\u2026 with intent to defraud the state\u201d before accepting the plea \u2014 which he confirmed with a short \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mickey Barreto was sentenced Wednesday after admitting to never owning the New Yorker hotel. Steven Hirsch for NY Post<\/p>\n

Barreto was immediately sentenced to six months jail and five years post-release probation after the judge accepted his plea.<\/p>\n

He will not serve time locked up since he had already served the length of the sentence at times during his court proceedings.<\/p>\n

Barreto infamously claimed to take ownership of the New Yorker hotel after he spent one-night at the hotel in June 2018 \u2014 when he allegedly told the hotel that he wanted to enter a lease agreement through the city\u2019s rent stabilization law.<\/p>\n

When the hotel balked at the offer, its owners, the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of the World Christianity, gave Barreto the boot from the premises \u2014 but he sued in civil court and the hotel was forced to let him back in, court papers said.<\/p>\n

The con-artist was able to stay a year rent-free at the hotel<\/a> before he tried pushing his luck by claiming ownership of the building on May 28, 2019, Manhattan prosecutors have said.<\/p>\n

Mickey Barreto was sentenced to six months jail and five years of probation. Steven Hirsch for NY Post<\/p>\n

Barreto convinced clerks at the city\u2019s Department of Finance that the judge\u2019s orders to let him back into the hotel meant he was now the owner of the 43-story structure, estimated to be worth $189 million.<\/p>\n

While acting as \u201cowner\u201d of the hotel, Barreto demanded rent from one of the hotel\u2019s tenants, prosecutors have said.<\/p>\n

He also registered the building under his name and demanded the hotel\u2019s bank to send over its accounts to him.<\/p>\n

The New Yorker hotel was fighting a man who is claiming ownership of the whole building in a phony deed. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Barreto also tried to contact the New York Hotel\u2019s franchisor, Wyndham, in an attempt to get the franchise transferred over to him, according to court papers.<\/p>\n

The civil case was settled in 2021, according to court records.<\/p>\n

Barreto was indicted by prosecutors<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

He had previously been found not mentally fit to face criminal charges in November 2024 \u2014 which resulted in the judge ordering him to find inpatient psychiatric care or be forced into treatment.<\/p>\n

Barreto\u2019s attorney, Brian Hutchinson, called the plea a fair deal for everyone and said that his client is looking to put this behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked really hard to get something that everyone can live with,\u201d Hutchinson said after the court hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMickey got some treatment he needed and he\u2019s looking forward to getting on with his life,\u201d the attorney added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Manhattan man who bizarrely tried to claim ownership of the iconic New Yorker hotel finally admitted he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[396,810,75,84,83,4327,57,9,24,63,25262,1491,10693,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-138176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-fraud","9":"tag-hotels","10":"tag-manhattan","11":"tag-manhattan-headlines","12":"tag-manhattan-news","13":"tag-manhattan-supreme-court","14":"tag-metro","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-plea-deals","19":"tag-real-estate","20":"tag-scams","21":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}