New York Attorney General Letitia James admitted a Virginia property was an “investment” on financial disclosure forms while allegedly making false statements to a bank to secure a more favorable loan that prohibited its use as a rental, putting her at risk of spending decades behind bars.
The three-bedroom home in Norfolk, Virginia, purchased by James in August 2020 and cited in Thursday’s federal indictment, was listed in the “real estate” section of her 2020 through 2023 financial disclosures to the New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government as an “investment,” valued between “$100,000 to under $150,000.”
In her 2024 ethics filing, however, James changed the classification of the Norfolk property, designating it as “real property” rather than an “investment,” according to documents reviewed by the New York Post.
The AG also upped the estimated value of the single-family home to “$150,000 to under $250,000,” the outlet reported.
James filed her 2024 financial disclosure in May, one month after Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte referred a criminal complaint to the Justice Department alleging she had falsified records to obtain home loans for another property in Norfolk, Virginia.
It remains unclear why she changed the property’s designation from “investment” to “real property” in that filing, The Post noted.