The feds and the city must probe whether NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams committed mortgage fraud and broke other laws in light of “serious” red flags surrounding his troubled ownership of a Brooklyn property that ended in foreclosure, a fellow Democrat demanded this week.
Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) fired off letters Monday to Federal Housing Finance Director William Pulte and NYC Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber in the wake of The Post’s exclusive last week revealing how the socialist pol lost a two-family home in Canarsie to Bank of America after he stopped paying the mortgage and racked up nearly $1 million in debt over 15 years.
Holden in both letters said public records suggest Williams misrepresented his financial situation for years by collecting rent from multiple tenants living on the property while simultaneously being delinquent on a federally backed mortgage.
“If Mr. Williams misrepresented his financial position, rental income, or occupancy status in mortgage applications or ongoing certifications, he may have violated federal statutes governing mortgage fraud and bank fraud,” Holden wrote Pulte.
“This matter is particularly troubling given Mr. Williams’ prominent role in publicly criticizing landlords through the City’s “Worst Landlords Watchlist” while allegedly engaging in similar misconduct himself. The apparent hypocrisy, combined with the scale of financial mismanagement and possible deception, undermines public confidence in elected leadership.”
Williams – who earns $184,000 annually and collected thousands of dollars a year renting the home to multiple tenants – stopped making his $1,344 monthly mortgage payments in 2010, according to records.
Holden in his letter to Strauber questioned whether Williams broke New York law by “knowingly making false statements” in his annual financial disclosure filings.
Williams, who served as a Brooklyn councilman from 2010 to March 2019 before being elected public advocate, didn’t list earning rental income in many of his past yearly filings dating back over a decade — despite court records showing tenants living on his property.
But he did list earning anywhere from $5,000 to $55,000 in rent in both 2022 and 2023, according to his most recent disclosure statements.
Williams was slapped with a foreclosure action in 2014 by Bank of America over a $389,600 mortgage he took out on the house in 2006 to finance a vegan sandwich shop in Park Slope that went belly up two years later.
Williams has long blamed his financial woes on the terms of his loan and tenants who didn’t pay rent.
The house was listed for sale through a foreclosure auction last month, but it reverted back to Bank of America ownership after not a single bidder offered a price exceeding the debt owed, which is now up to $944,582, according to Auction.com.
The DOI and the Federal Housing Finance Agency declined comment.
Williams’ spokesman Kevin Fagan shot down the claims, saying Holden “has every right to request wasting time and money investigating a decade-old non-story on a false premise — though it would have been more efficient if he’d simply looked at the public records and seen that the public advocate has accurately reported any rent collected and filed required disclosures.”
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