A Florida man who bragged about being the “Wolf of Airbnb” was given a sentence of more than four years in jail on Monday for scamming federal pandemic relief programs and landlords in New York City.
Judge Lorna G. Schofield of a federal court in Manhattan condemned Konrad Bicher, 32, of Hialeah, Florida.
Bicher was sentenced to four years and three months in jail after entering a guilty plea to a wire fraud charge one year prior. In addition, he was mandated to forfeit $1.7 million and make restitution of $2.2 million. At the sentence hearing, he declined to speak.
Prosecutors claimed that between 2019 and April 2022, Bicher used the epidemic as a justification to run at least 18 Manhattan apartments as “mini-hotels” and avoid paying more than $1 million in unpaid rent to landlords. They claimed he also obtained government-guaranteed loans under a scheme designed to help small companies in the event of the COVID-19 epidemic.
Bicher’s lawyer submitted a sentencing statement pleading for leniency, attributing some of the Manhattan apartment problems to the landlords.
Prosecutors stated in a statement that Bicher used the sanctuary of tenant protections provided by New York City to fight lawsuits from landlords by fabricating a story about how the coronavirus was causing him troubles and lying about where he lived and how he used the apartments.
According to the prosecution, he was vacationing and living in Florida at the time of the scam as per WTSM News.
They said that Bicher boasted to friends and the media that he was the “Wolf of Airbnb,” and that the term was a play on the title of a memoir written by former stockbroker Jordan Belfort, who amassed a fortune on penny stocks before blowing most of it on an extravagant and wild lifestyle and serving time in jail for financial crimes.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a release that Bicher had taken pleasure in calling himself the “Wolf of Airbnb.”