It has yet to be proven in a court of law whether N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James committed mortgage fraud in connection with her purchases of properties in Virginia and New York by making misrepresentations to lending institutions to secure better loan rates. The Federal Home Loan Bank System, in a criminal referral letter to the Department of Justice, argued that she did. In any event, in the court of public opinion, we suggest that Ms. James has already lost the case.
And we are not even alluding to the obvious hypocrisy and irony if she were found to have done what she pursued Donald Trump for allegedly having done. But whether or not she is ultimately found to have violated the law, in the light of her – at best – fast and loose approach to applying for loans there can be no doubt that she did not view loan applications as very big deals in and of themselves.
Yet, she did legal somersaults in order to conjure up a patchwork of violations of law on Trump’s part in applying for loans, which virtually all experts opined were arguably accurate, at any rate harmless and victimless, and knowingly accepted by the lending institutions themselves. And who can forget her bellowing about no one being above the law?
Among the false or misleading statements in the criminal referral that Ms. James is alleged to have made included a claim on a Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac form that a Virginia property she was buying would serve as her primary residence. Banks will offer typically give lower rates for mortgages on primary residences since homeowners are less likely to default on loans on primary residences than on second homes. Yet as N.Y. Attorney General she was legally required to reside in New York!
The criminal referral also noted that in connection with her purchase of a Brooklyn, N.Y. property that “Ms. James has consistently misrepresented the same property as only having four units in both building permit applications and numerous mortgage documents and applications.” However, according to the criminal referral, the Certificate of Occupancy issued by the NYC Department of Buildings for the property shows it to be a five-unit dwelling.
And according to the referral letter, Ms. James bought the property with a loan that is only available for those with four units or less.
Ms. James was also said to have listed her father as her co-owner but falsely identified him as her husband, allegedly because mortgage applicants will likely receive better mortgage rates as a married couple than as singles couple. That is, because, perhaps, they might be able to combine two incomes and two people would be on the hook in case of default.
In response, Ms. James’ office said she bought the Virginia property together with her niece and provided a partial copy of a loan application in which she appeared to indicate that she didn’t intend to live in the Virginia property. It was also maintained that while the Certificate of Occupancy lists the property as a five-unit property, other city records refer to it as having four units. Further, there was a rider attached to the mortgage agreement itself which clarified that the building was four units.
No explanations were forthcoming as to why she listed her father as her husband.
Given the animosity between the President and the Attorney General, it is likely that an investigation – perhaps a comprehensive and intensive one at that – will soon follow. But it already seems apparent to us that Ms. James’ loose, cavalier attitude towards her personal record-keeping validates the fears many of us had that her no-holds-barred, take no prisoners prosecution of Donald Trump for his recordkeeping smacked of partisan politics and had very little to do with conventional, legitimate law enforcement.
In fact, we can’t even say that she didn’t tell us as much when she disclosed that the primary reason she ran for NYS Attorney General was to position herself so as to be able to take Donald Trump down!
