NY AG Letitia James admitted Virginia home at center of bank fraud indictment was investment property: ethics filings

Indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James repeatedly listed her Virginia home as an “investment” property in financial disclosure forms – despite allegedly making false claims to a bank to obtain a favorable loan that barred her from using the house as a rental.The three bedroom Norfolk, Va., home James purchased in August of 2020 – named in Thursday’s federal grand jury indictment – is listed in the “real estate” section of James’ 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 disclosures to the New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government as an “investment,” valued at between “$100,000 to under $150,000.” However, in her 2024 ethics filing, James designated the Norfolk home as “real property,” rather than an “investment.” The AG also upped the estimated value of the single-family home to “$150,000 to under $250,000.” The 2024 disclosure was filed in May of this year – a month after Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director William Pulte sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department alleging that James had “falsified records” to obtain home loans for a different Norfolk, Va., property. It’s unclear why James changed the word “investment” to “real property” on her 2024 disclosure. James did not disclose generating any income from the Norfolk home at the center of the indictment in her ethics filings between 2021-2024. In her 2020 disclosures, James noted that an “investment real property” in Norfolk brought in between $1,000 and $5,000 in income.However, it is unclear whether this property is the same one mentioned in the indictment.  The New York attorney general’s office and James’ lawyer did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment. Federal prosecutors allege that James misrepresented how she would use the property when she obtained a $109,600 mortgage loan – originated by OVM Financial and backed by Fannie Mae – to purchase the $137,000 home in 2020.James agreed to ...