New York resident Mickey Barreto, who managed to stay at the New Yorker Hotel for free, has pleaded guilty to fraud. Barreto found a crack within the system, became a resident of the hotel, and even tried to claim ownership of the property later.
Barreto came to the hotel with his boyfriend in 2018 and paid $200 to rent one room. Barreto’s boyfriend reportedly told him about a legal loophole that legalizes anyone living in a room of a building constructed before 1969 to demand a six-month lease.
He planned to use this to his advantage and asked for a lease from the hotel. However, the hotel kicked him out. Barreto then went an extra step to make the impossible happen. He said, “So I went to court the next day. The judge denied. I appealed to the Supreme Court and I won the appeal.”
One of the reasons he won the case this easily was also because of the fact that the hotel failed to send its lawyers to the hearing. Following this, the court ordered the hotel to let Barreto stay. Interestingly, he did not pay a single cent for his stay as the hotel could not settle on a compensation and could not kick him out either.
The Manhattan man who bizarrely tried to claim ownership of the iconic New Yorker hotel finally admitted he never owned the iconic Art Deco landmark as he was slapped with a six-month prison sentence on Wednesday.
Mickey Barreto, 49, pleaded guilty to forging property records… pic.twitter.com/3yMjWSCekm
— Qᴀɢɢ.ɴᴇᴡꜱ (@qaggnews) February 19, 2026
If Barreto stopped there, he could have dragged this out for longer, but things changed when he craved more. In 2019, Barreto forged property documents to transfer the hotel to his name.
The prosecutor’s office also stated that Barreto attempted to charge others as the owner of the building.
This also included Barreto “demanding rent from one of the hotel’s tenants, registering the hotel under his name with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection for water and sewage payments, and demanding the hotel’s bank transfer its accounts to him.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said, “As alleged, Mickey Barreto repeatedly and fraudulently claimed ownership of one of the city’s most iconic landmarks, the New Yorker Hotel.”
Barreto was finally evicted from the hotel in 2024 and charged with multiple counts of felony fraud. He was later deemed unfit for the trial and underwent psychiatric treatment.
Following his plea deal, Barreto received a six-month prison sentence that he already served, with five years of probation.
Man Who Lived Rent-Free in Hotel for 5 Years Pleads Guilty to Fraud https://t.co/PZUNP65coC
After checking into a Manhattan hotel for one night, Mickey Barreto exploited an obscure New York City housing law to stay there for years.
— Sean Graf (@seangraf) February 20, 2026
Previously, Barreto told The Associated Press that the judge who granted him possession of the room automatically gave him the whole hotel. According to him, the hotel was not legally divided into separate units, making it a single entity.
Barreto maintains that what he did made sense because according to him, it was technically legal. He added, “I never intended to commit any fraud. I don’t believe I ever committed any fraud…And I never made a penny out of this.”
