Visitor put up by Joel Gilbert
Legal professional Common Letitia James, the architect of New York state’s mortgage-fraud crackdowns, now finds herself within the place of her former defendants, accused of exploiting the very system she as soon as claimed to defend. The hypocrisy is simple.
Any try by Letitia James to assert ignorance of the regulation as a protection in her mortgage fraud indictment is all however gone.
In June 2019, New York Legal professional Common Letitia James stood earlier than the cameras to hail a conviction she known as a triumph towards mortgage fraud.
The case concerned a $1.3 million scheme by Brooklyn couple John F. Iacono and Shpresa Gjekovic, whom James accused of “a deliberate scheme to counterpoint themselves on the expense of hardworking New Yorkers.”
On the time, she declared the prosecution was proof that “nobody is above the regulation”.
However right now, now below indictment for mortgage fraud herself, that speech reads much less like a second of triumph and extra like an act of projection.
The accompanying quote from Legal professional Common James stays putting for its tone of ethical absolutism.
“Iacono and Gjekovic falsified doc after doc as a way to pad their very own pockets,” James stated. “Let this function a warning to all of those that attempt to perform such deliberate schemes: There is no such thing as a place on this state for people who attempt to money in on the expense of hardworking New Yorkers.”
These phrases, “no place on this state,” as soon as echoed throughout newsrooms because the declaration of an ethical crusader.
Her CUFFS Initiative (Combatting Upstate Monetary Frauds and Schemes) was marketed as a mannequin for restoring religion in monetary integrity, pairing state police with prosecutors to “expose deceitful plots” and reinforce public belief.
In line with her workplace’s 2019 press release, Iacono and Gjekovic orchestrated an elaborate scheme between April 2016 and March 2017 utilizing phony financial institution information to safe over $1.3 million in fraudulent loans to defraud lenders throughout upstate New York.
Quick ahead to the current. The identical Letitia James who condemned others for falsifying mortgage paperwork is now accused of doing the identical, however on a far broader scale.
My investigations reveal she misrepresented her properties for many years to safe decrease rates of interest and shutting prices she was not entitled to.
As I documented in The Gateway Pundit starting in March 2025, Letitia James engaged in 24 years of mortgage fraud and housing regulation violations in connection along with her 5-unit Brooklyn condominium constructing.
James obtained decrease rates of interest by falsely representing her constructing as having less than five units, a key threshold for acquiring decrease residential lending phrases and avoiding dearer business charges and shutting prices.
James additionally didn’t register her condominium constructing and tenant leases for rent stabilization as required, depriving New York Metropolis of regulatory oversight and tenants of lawful protections.
James even lied on her very first mortgage software, claiming to be married to her father to qualify for a mortgage.
My colleague Sam Antar reported that James falsely declared a property in Virginia she co-purchased in 2023 along with her niece as her primary residence, thereby acquiring decrease rates of interest.
Much more troubling, James publicly acknowledged that the property was bought to offer shelter for her niece’s daughter, Nikia Monique Thompson, a fugitive absconder wished on parole violations in North Carolina with an lively arrest warrant.
The parallels between James and the Iacono-Gjekovic case are putting. Each included falsified paperwork, self-enrichment, and manipulation of economic establishments.
But whereas James’s former defendants had been punished swiftly, James right now portrays herself as a sufferer of political persecution.
At a rally for Zohran Mamdani, James thundered, “We’re witnessing the fraying of our democracy, the erosion of our system of presidency,” James stated. “This, my buddies, is a defining second in our historical past.”
Additional, James launched a completely new course of for the system of justice. “You come for me, you bought to return although all of us,” James roared to a cheering crowed. “Each single certainly one of us!”
Her defiance was a mix of ethical outrage and self-preservation. However for a public official who constructed her model on integrity and reform, it has created an unmistakable notion: guidelines for thee, however not for me.
Right now the picture of Letitia James from 2019 denouncing mortgage fraudsters has turn out to be a joke.
Her personal identify now sits beside the phrase “mortgage fraud investigation” in search outcomes, an ironic reversal that underscores how swiftly the hunter can turn out to be the hunted, as Steve Bannon has stated.
Public workplace carries not simply authorized however ethical obligation. It’s finally belief and ethical credibility that sustains the rule of regulation and democracy itself.
If Letitia James as soon as insisted there was “no place on this state” for mortgage fraud, then she should now face that normal herself and resign her workplace. As a result of in the long run, the measure of justice is whether or not we stay by the legal guidelines we impose on others.
Joel Gilbert is a Los Angeles-based movie producer and president of Highway 61 Entertainment. He’s the producer of the brand new movie Roseanne Barr Is America. He’s additionally the producer of: Dreams from My Real Father, The Trayvon Hoax, Trump: The Art of the Insult, and lots of different movies on American politics and music icons. Gilbert is on Twitter: @JoelSGilbert.
