This whole story sounds like something out of the Onion:
For five years, a man managed to live rent-free in a landmark New York City hotel by exploiting an obscure local housing law.
But prosecutors say Mickey Barreto went too far when he filed paperwork claiming ownership of the New Yorker Hotel building in midtown Manhattan — and tried to charge another tenant rent.
This month, he was arrested and charged with filing false property records. But Barreto, 48, says he was surprised when police showed up at his boyfriend’s apartment with guns and bulletproof shields. As far as he is concerned, it should be a civil case, not a criminal one.
“I said, ‘Oh, I thought you were doing something for Valentine’s Day to spice up the relationship until I saw the female officers,’” Barreto recalled telling his boyfriend.
This guy was getting free rent at a $200 a day hotel through a legal loophole for five years and still got greedy and tried to claim ownership of the entire hotel:
Manhattan prosecutors acknowledge that the housing court gave Barreto “possession” of his room. But they say he didn’t stop there: In 2019, he uploaded a fake deed to a city website, purporting to transfer ownership of the entire building to himself from the Holy Spirit Assn. for the Unification of World Christianity, which bought the property in 1976. The church was founded in South Korea by a self-proclaimed messiah, the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
Barreto then tried to charge various entities as the owner of the building, “including 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,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
“As alleged, Mickey Barreto repeatedly and fraudulently claimed ownership of one of the city’s most iconic landmarks, the New Yorker Hotel,” said Manhattan Dist. Atty. Alvin Bragg.
You can read more at the link, but essentially a gay guy uses incompentent New York government to live rent free in a landmark New York hotel for five years and then tries to steal hotel from a notorious religious cult.
‘Otto Warmbier Way’ street name sought near N.K. officeThis Jan. 17, 2019, photo shows the building in Manhattan, New York, where North Korea has its mission to the United Nations. U.S. broadcaster Fox News reported that Joe Borelli, a New York City Council member, is seeking to rename the street in front of the building “Otto Warmbier Way” after a U.S. university student who was detained in the North for 17 months and died in 2017 soon after he was sent back home in a coma. (Yonhap)
The poster does seem to suggest the model is taking her hanbok off which considering all the sexual harassment cases going on in America, it is probably not a good way to promote your city:
The promotional posters that were going to be used in busy parts of New York. The image shows, from left, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Gwanghwamun Square and Dongdaemun Design Plaza. / Courtesy of Seoul City
Seoul City has dropped promotional posters after they drew criticism for sexually objectifying women.
The posters were going to be exhibited in New York City’s Times Square and SoHo, among other areas, including 150 bus stations, from Dec.18 to Jan 14.
“I thought she was undressing,” said Alex Costilhes, an engineer graduate who lives in New York.“The tagline doesn’t help either.The tagline, with the woman pulling on her dress, gives it a sexual connotation.It could be fixed easily with her just not tugging on that ribbon.”
New York resident Paula Martinez said it had not crossed her mind at first that it was a sexualized image.But “the directorial choice to have the model pulling on the ribbon is kind of weird,” she said.“I can definitely see how it might play into the Western fetishization of East Asian women.Like, that being used to draw white men to come to Korea for tourism.I feel like it’s not that overt, though.” [Korea Times]
Choo Mi-ae, leader of the ruling Democratic Party, holds the hands of a “comfort woman” statue at Museum of Korean American Heritage in New York on Nov. 17, 2017 (New York time). Comfort women refer to those who were forcibly taken to Japanese front-line military brothels during World War II. (Yonhap)
This prank video was pretty funny, but what amazed me the most was how many people thought this was the actual Kim Jong-un. It just goes to show despite all the headlines how little people still know about North Korea to think he would just pop up in New York and walk around with a one-man escort. However, doing this again with Dennis Rodman walking with him would be hilarious!:
Good luck New York City trying to get this money out of North Korea:
As if the U.S. and North Korea hadn’t had enough bilateral tensions, outstanding parking fines from North Korea’s diplomatic mission to the U.N. add insult to injury. According to NBC New York, the mission owes as much as $156,000 to the city of New York for more than 1,300 unpaid tickets that date back to the 1990s.
Jong Jo, identified as secretary of North Korea’s U.N. mission, came to his country’s defense. “It is false,” Jong told NBC New York. “Whenever we have a ticket, we pay. Because, you know, if we have three tickets the city does not allow us to renew their permission.”
In fact, a 2002 Memorandum of Understanding between the State Department and New York does allow the city to deny a diplomatic parking decal from vehicles that have three or more unpaid parking tickets, NBC New York reported. Even though the majority of tickets accrued by the diplomatic mission occurred after 2002, the city said that debt from parking tickets prior to that year still has to be paid. [Newsweek]
This whole incident is very unfortunate, but it seems what happened was caused by Mr. Han being drunk and harassing Mr. Davis in the first place thus influencing the jury’s decision to acquit him:
Naeem Davis, right, was acquitted of murder
A man accused of pushing a stranger to his death by shoving him on to the tracksof a subway has been acquitted of murder.
Naeem Davis, 34, was cleared on Monday of murdering Ki-Suck Han, 58, after he shoved him on to the tracks at the 49th Street station near Times Square in New York on December 3, 2012.
Mr Davis said he was defending himself when he pushed Mr Han off the platform. At least a minute passed before a train pulled into the platform and it Mr Han, killing him.
The scene was captured by a photographer for the New York Post, who controversially put a picture showing Mr Han on the tracks, seconds before his death, on its front page.
Mr Davis said that Mr Han, who was drunk at the time, had picked a fight with him after the pair bumped into each other accidentally near the subway turnstiles.
A court heard that Mr Han then followed Mr Davis down to the platform, shouting obscenities at him – including death threats – and grabbing his shoulder.
Mr Davis said Mr Han shouted at him, ’I’ll kill you!’, and that he was slurring his words and staggering. [Yahoo News]
You can read the rest at the link, but Mr. Davis spent four and half years in jail before being acquitted of the crime.
It looks like New York City has a few less Korean prostitutes today. I wonder how long this will last?:
Joint federal and local Police authorities cracked down on Korean brothels in New York’s Koreatown. According to the police, many of the women who worked at these brothels came from Korea thru a visa waiver program.
The group that operated these businesses attracted customers through elaborate internet website and operated in 11 different premises by disguising to be lawful spa establishments. The arrested group was found to have more than 70,000 customers in a database. [Korea Times]
