A Florida woman took over the trendy Williamsburg co-op, earned illegally pocketed rent and even tried to sell the building for $1.4 million, the new lawsuit alleges.
But fake landlord Jessica Vargas claims she didn't do anything wrong because squatters said ownership of the building, which had been extended by fest, was “good to go” before city officials were said to have raised nearly $450,000 from the low-income cooperative.
“Thieves?” Vargas told the post. “It's not me. I've always been honest.”
Vargas was named this week in a lawsuit filed by state attorney general Letitia James, seeking to regain the title of the building and urged Vargas to pay the co-op.
Suit claims Vargas has produced several false documents to claim ownership of the 13-Family Limited-Equity Co-op Building. HDFCconverting a presumably affordable building into a “personal Florida piggy bank,” James said in a statement this week.
“Jessica Vargas declared the president of a building she didn't claim and exploited New Yorkers to personally acquire New Yorkers while living more than 1,000 miles away,” James said.
But Vargas said she inherited the circumstances that her late father created — and after he passed away in 2018, city officials who have since retired since told her everything was kosher.
Her lawyer, Alexander Levkovic, said Vargas was innocent and called the lawsuit “a considerable overreach.”
The lawsuit says that 41-year-old Vargas, who grew up in the building with his family and now works as a data specialist, lives outside of Tampa, where he is “engaged in repeated fraud,” and has to return $442,000 of the rent he was supposed to have gone to the cooperative. The building has a city property tax of over $40,000.
Vargas said the money she netted – the monthly rent paid by the developer-owned LLC was used to support her siblings and legal fees with the building's brothers, instead of making her rich, with the contract signed before her father passed away.
“I've been living in the same house for over 20 years,” Vargas said. “I don't have a flashy car. I don't have anything – nothing. They say: 'Wow, yeah, she's got a lot of money.' No, I've been doing what I've been doing since I was five years old. I'm taking care of my siblings. ”
Her father, Albert Rivera, was the first to assert ownership of the cooperative shares in a document containing only his and his wife's signatures.
Vargas said their shares returned to HDFC and her father when the other shareholders died.
The court documents contain affirmations from the property of shareholders who claim that the shares were not transferred to Rivera.
Rivera signed a 2017 lease agreement with the developer-owned LLC, giving him the option to buy it for $1.4 million, as long as he controlled the building and paid rent of $6,500 a month.
However, James's office said the lease agreement is void as tenants must meet strict revenue standards with shareholder approval. Even if the lease is legal, the office claims that the money is for the cooperative, not for Rivera or Vargas pockets.
When Rivera died, Vargas continued to collect money as the manager of her father's property, and presented herself as the sole owner of the building through several false documents filed with the city agency, including fraudulent stock certificates claiming sole ownership, according to James' filings.
Vargas said he met with HPD officials who his father allegedly met years ago and approved the lease after his father's death.
She told him “everything I had” was related to the building and officials said “I told him I was glad I went… he told me I was the owner,” Vargas said.
An email from his father in December 2016 stated that he had met with an official and said “HPD cannot give anything in writing” regarding his claim for ownership.
This post failed to reach personnel whose names have been withheld to verify any of Vargas' claims.
HPD confirmed that no staff members were working in the department and there were no records of meetings with Vargas or Rivera.
A spokesperson added that the LLC lease was not permitted due to HDFC restrictions and that HDFC did not dissolve.
The Vargas deal left the co-op, including $41,479 in outstanding property taxes and $3,000 in water bills.
When AG's office began an investigation more than a year ago, spurring the ownership issue filed during the lawsuit to eliminate alleged squatters who took over the long building in 2023, they asked Vargas to prepare a document indicating her ownership and the dissolution of HDFC.
Vargas said she cooperated perfectly, but officials said Vargas could not produce evidence that her claim was legal.
The AG office then offered to trade. If Vargas withdraws its claims against the title, prosecutors will not chase the funds that are allegedly stolen.
Vargas refused the offer.
“The advantage of Jessica entering this agreement would have been strictly for AG to take over the property pretty much,” said Vargas' attorney Levkovic.
Vargas said she was “honestly” and that if HPD told her there was a lack of title, she would have followed her at the time whatever she told her.
An AG spokesperson said the length of time Vargas made to support the false ownership narrative, including false stock certificates, was inconsistent with her claim that she was not familiar with it.
Levkovic said GoFundMe must be launched to pay “critical resources to protect the lawsuit.”
“I can't sleep,” Vargas said. “Are you accused of stealing something? It's not me – I've always been honest.”
