{"id":199925,"date":"2026-04-16T21:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/199925\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T21:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:41:09","slug":"nyc-landlord-accused-of-running-illegal-airbnb-rental-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/199925\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC landlord accused of running illegal Airbnb rental scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK CITY (PIX11) \u2013 The city has filed a lawsuit against a landlord<\/a> accused of running an illegal short\u2011term rental operation.<\/p>\n

The suit, announced Thursday, claims that Chananya Bineth, along with family members and business partners, submitted false documents to run short\u2011term rentals in three buildings in Brooklyn and the Bronx.<\/p>\n

More Local News <\/a><\/p>\n

City officials said the scheme pulled needed apartments out of the long\u2011term housing market, making it harder for New Yorkers to find homes.<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, Bineth tried to obtain six short\u2011term rental registrations for buildings at 8658 16th Ave. and 114 Wilson Ave. in Brooklyn, and 1701 Clay Ave. in the Bronx.<\/p>\n

The defendants allegedly earned more than $1.3 million from about 1,400 illegal rental bookings, with the payments directed to Bineth\u2019s companies, since April 2023, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit says they changed the apartment\u2019s listings on Airbnb and their own booking site to promote illegal rentals, including entire units with no host present and stays that exceeded the two\u2011guest limit.<\/p>\n

Short-term rental registrations requires that landlords advertise only legal, hosted stays for up to two guests, according to city officials.<\/p>\n

Some defendants also used fake profile photos and names on Airbnb, sometimes posing as different people, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also claims the group placed guests in non\u2011residential areas, including a mezzanine, an office space, and a garage, violated city fire safety rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen bad actors convert homes into illegal short-term rentals just to squeeze out profit, they\u2019re taking homes away from New Yorkers who actually need a place to live,\u201d Mayor Mamdani said. \u201cThis lawsuit is about making clear that our housing stock belongs to the people of this city, and we\u2019re going to fight to keep it accessible, safe, and affordable for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicole Alarcon is an award-winning digital content producer. She has covered local news for the tri-state area since 2021. She joined PIX11 News in 2026. See more of her work here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK CITY (PIX11) \u2013 The city has filed a lawsuit against a landlord accused of running an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[79431,79430,9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-199925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-business-partners","9":"tag-chananya-bineth","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-ny","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-nyc-headlines","14":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199925","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=199925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}