Konrad Bicher—the 31-year-old Florida native and self proclaimed “Wolf of Airbnb”—has been indicted following an FBI investigation into his unlawful scheme of subletting Manhattan residences whereas refusing to pay lease.

Bicher has been indicted on two counts of wire fraud and one depend of aggravated identification theft in line with the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York. Bicher’s scheme concerned refusing to pay lease in over a dozen Manhattan residences whereas renting them out to 3rd events on the web site Airbnb. The Attorney’s Office says that Bicher and his associates didn’t make greater than $1,000,000 value of funds throughout a time-frame of July 2019 to April 2022 whereas raking in an earnings of $1,170,000 for his leases.

“We allege that Bicher brazenly rented at least 18 apartments in Manhattan with the intent to ignore his lease obligations, including by operating the apartments as mini-hotels and skipping rent. When landlords sought to recover rental payments from Bicher, he lied and claimed that he could not make payments during the pendency of the COVID-19 pandemic,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams stated in a press release. “Bicher abused Government programs and tenant protections intended to benefit New Yorkers in crisis, and he will have to answer for his conduct.”

Meanwhile the fraudster was stated to have been amassing PPP loans meant to assist small companies climate the covid-19 pandemic, strolling away with $565,000. According to the Attorney’s Office, Bicher submitted paperwork with falsified info to acquire these loans—a few of these paperwork included faux tax filings with the IRS. Bicher was first arrested for his crimes earlier this summer time.

Bicher’s scheme occurred all through the course of Manhattan changing into one of the crucial costly cities within the U.S. to be a renter in, which seems to have hit a report excessive this summer time. According to a viral report from actual property firm Douglas Elliman revealed this summer time, Manhattan residences surged 29% year-over-year as much as a whopping common month-to-month fee of $5,058 in June 2022.