The Savvy Squatter of NYC w/ Gianmarco Soresi

Laci Mosley
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Definitely. The new series Queenie premieres June 7, streaming on Hulu. Scam cause robbery and fraud scam cuz robbery and fraud scam goddess what's poppin congregation? It's your girl, Lacey Moseley, aka scam goddess. Back with another installment of the podcast scam goddess.

All about robbery, fraud, and those who practice it. Sometimes we love them, sometimes we hate them. This is very special, y'all. I am in New York City right now doing the secret thing I can't tell you all about yet, but I'm in New York City. I'm at the Sirius in New York.

This is crazy. And we had to have a special guest for a special moment. We have an amazing stand up comedian, actor and creator on the show. You've seen him in Netflix's bonding, hustlers, the last OG, and more. Check out his podcast, the downside, where he interviews people where they discuss the downsides to their life.

Also, he's doing stand up in a city near you. And if you can't catch him in the States, check the leaning in tour. When he heads to Australia, New Zealand and Europe, y'all know I can only say one thing in an australian accent. Lazadisc. That's all I got.

For tickets, go to John Markle Soresi's congregation. Please welcome John Marco Seresi to the show. Hello. How are you? Oh, man.

I'm here. Good, good. I feel like that's very much my energy these days, is I'm here. I was, like, a hot mess on your show. Oh, my God.

Gianmarco Soresi
It was fun. We had a good time. I was like, I'm gonna be less crazy today. And then I showed up and I was like, I feel like I'm still as crazy as I was, but I'm so happy that you're here. Me too.

Laci Mosley
I always ask guests on the show, what is your relationship with scams? Have you ever been scammed? Have you run any scams that are past the statute of limitations? It could be anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Gianmarco Soresi
One time I felt like I really learned the lesson of what to be on the lookout for. I was in Europe after college. I did, like, a little backpacking thing. My dad, he was like, you don't do this. You'll never take three months off again to do this kind of thing.

And he was right. And I had just gone through, like, a mutual breakup, but I was feeling, you know, lonely. A mutual breakup? What is. It was like, I wasn't gonna get married.

So I was like, let's just part ways and stay friends. That don't sound mutual. You left that person? Yeah, yeah. But then ultimately they married someone else, and then it was.

And then I was like, oh, my God, what have I done? And, you know, young, dumb. I love that you're like, I went through a mutual breakup where they wanted to get married. And I said, goodbye. I'm going backpacking through Europe.

Laci Mosley
No, thanks. But I was. But it was mutual. I was lonely, I was horny. I was young.

Gianmarco Soresi
And I went to Hamburg where sex work was legal. I was too scared. I was too scared to fully engage. I was a very neurotic. I'm jewish.

I just was like, I'm gonna get something. I would be scared too. It's like, when I show profession, we know the workplace hazards. So I don't know if I wanna be open to the hazards. So I, like, went to.

There was a. I guess a brothel. I don't know if that's the term, but it was just women who were being hired for this stuff. And I was too nervous to do this, but I was like, I wanna do something. And these two women said, do you want to see a lesbian show for €100?

And I said, okay, okay, that's close. I'll see a show, a private show. And I paid the €100. I go in, the two women, they sit down. It's sort of a bed type thing.

And I'm sitting on a chair, and they said, so you paid for little lesbian show. We also have medium lesbian show. And then we have. We have really lesbian show, just like. And then, you know, they said.

They described what it might entail, and me being the frugal guy that I was, I said, medium. I'll pay for medium. So they said, okay, medium is 60 more euros. So I said, okay, here you go. 60 more euros.

Laci Mosley
Cause they got you in the room now. So they were like, let's up the price a little bit. They got me in the room. It's. What is it called?

You're already here. You're not gonna leave. Uh huh. What is it? Where you put something, you put main switch investment, or, like.

Well, it's called a sunk cost. Sunk cost fallacy. Yeah. So it's like, you've already sunk the cost in for the €100. So they're like, we got you now pay more.

Gianmarco Soresi
So these two women, they're just. They're lying. They're talking next to each other. They're lying down, like, just chatting. One's showing on her facebook to the other wedding pictures of a friend of hers.

And I go, like, what's going on? And she goes, fine. And she takes, like, her teddy and, like, pulls out one nipple and goes there and goes back to the thing. And I'm sitting there, and I'm like. I feel I'm in the middle of the scam, and I can feel it.

I'm like, oh, my God, I'm caught. I've been screwed. But I still. I wanted it so much. And so I said, like, at 1.1 of them, like, laughed at her friend, and her heel scratched my leg.

Cause she was laughing so hard with her friend looking at Facebook. And I said, what's going on here? And they said, oh, you want more? You want us to use a dildo? And I said, sure.

And she goes, she gets a dildo. And she says, well, we need a condom for the dildo. And in my mind, I thought, no, you don't need condoms for dildos. But I was still young adult. It might be a community dildo.

Laci Mosley
Maybe they might be coming to work. And it's like, we all using the same. I gave them the benefit of the doubt. So I said, okay, condom. And they said, well, the condom for the dildo cost 20 more euros.

Gianmarco Soresi
And I'm thinking, that's an expensive condom. But I'm stuck. And all I had in my. I had a little case, you know, so you don't get pickpocketed. So I had, like, a little, like, fanny pack of sorts, and all I had left was a bill.

And they said, oh, we'll give you change for that. I never saw that fucking change. Oh, no. They went in the back. Never saw it.

And then she took the dildo out, put the condom on it, and just kind of, like, tapped it on herself with a close still on, and was like, this is the medium lesbian show. And I am. I'm red. I'm humiliated. I've given at least, you know, an american, like, $300 at this point.

And I left, and I was very upset. It's not kind of me, but I left. And I said, you guys, why don't you go fuck yourselves? And the security guard was there. I mean, he could have beaten the shit out of me, but I was so ashamed of how stupid I was and how totally scammed I was.

And it was a valuable lesson, too. When you're horny, that's where your prime scam target. Listen, they got you. They got you. They got you honest.

They got me good. They kept ramping you up. They were like, well, we need a little bit more. Better it happens now than 65 and you give away your retirement funds. Better to have that lesson at 22.

Laci Mosley
That's why I always say, talk to your grandparents. Cause they're gonna give away your inheritance to whatever scammer calls them. Like saying, do you want a medium lesbian show? Grandpa's not gonna know what hit him. Now I wanna know what the large show was.

Gianmarco Soresi
I don't. I wanna know what the small show was. If looking at Facebook was the medium. Yeah, I saw one nipple, and she. Gave you that nipple, like, here, fine.

Laci Mosley
Damn. She didn't even really wanna give it to you. It was brutal, dude. Oh, my God. I love it.

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This one's too hard, this one's too soft, and it fell apart. Cause y'all know I got it from a cheap website. And this t shirt from skims is just right from fit to quality. It is one of my, like, these are my favorite t shirts. I have three different ones.

Y'all know I love me an onyx because I'm gonna be wearing black all the time. They have a cotton, long sleeve jersey tee that I really like, too, because the material is so soft. But when I put it in the washer, she don't have a whole transformation or makeover. It's not move that bust when I take it out. She looks the way that she looked when I put her in.

And we know we cannot say that for all t shirts, okay? So you can have staple t shirts that you can mix and match and wear up or down. Maybe we're going to a fancy night out. Maybe we're going on a date. Maybe we're lounging around the house.

I love these shirts so much because I can do so many different things with them. It's like I'm telling y'all, skims they doing right over there. I got on the underwear right now. I can't give it up. I think they got me, y'all.

I'm not even playing. Shop the skims t shirt shop@skims.com. now available in sizes extra, extra small to four x. If you haven't yet, be sure to let them know I sent you. After you place your order, select scam goddess in the survey, and select my show in the drop down menu that follows.

Gianmarco Soresi
Cut. All right, John Marco, I need a fake name for this person. We don't care about gender. Russell. Russell.

Laci Mosley
Okay, so we're moving into our first segment here, what's hot and fraud? This is where we warn our listeners about popping scams on the zeitgeist. Or more often than not, y'all know these days, we get a letter from you all. As always, snitch on your friends, family, and your enemies@scamgottispodmail.com. dot.

Just make sure your scam is retired, because we don't want to. What? Yes. Fuck up your bag. Amen.

So russell. Russell says, long time listener, first time writer. Thanks, Russell. My friend owns a t shirt business, and usually. So you snitching out your friends.

Okay. And usually does really edgy marketing. I don't know what you. I don't know what you mean by that, Russell, but okay. Think the typical car salesman that is the hometown celebrity that's in your face with all of his antics.

He's a black man who does not support Trump. You gotta clarify that. You know, black man. I assume Trump supported, then. Good to know.

During the second election that Trump ran for my friend. Oh, sorry. During. I'm reading what you wrote, girl. Russell.

So basically, during the second election, Russell was saying, my friend created a site and shirt that was catchy for Trump supporters. He never showed his face. So no one except his close friends and shirt shop employees knew he printed these shirts. He made enough money to buy a commercial building with his sales. I don't like that he was promoting Trump, but I love in all caps that a black man profited off of racism and ignorance.

Gianmarco Soresi
Wow. I don't know. That's kind of badass to me, right? Cause I don't know. I don't think anyone's ever seen a shirt and thought, I'm gonna check.

I'm gonna change my views. You know what? I've seen enough of the Trump shirts. I see where it's going. I'm convinced now.

Laci Mosley
I vote for him. I listen as someone who sells merch and knows how hard it is to make merch in a timely manner. God bless you. Get it done. Good for you.

Got it done. Got it done. Well, apparently. I mean, I don't know if this is a scam. I mean, it is a scam because they don't know that they're buying merch from a black person.

They don't want to give black people money. That's the thing I always like. Anytime I'm in a rich place or someplace that people don't think black people belong, there's always someone asking me what I do for a living. You're like, what do you do? Where you from?

And I'm like. You're asking me, like, how did you get money? Cause we try to stop that. We don't want that to happen. I think it's great, you know, I think it could be absolved if you gave a little of that money just to something.

Gianmarco Soresi
A good cause. A good cause. It'd just be a little 5%. And I go, okay, you're robbing from this. Given to this Todd, Marco, this voice.

Laci Mosley
Give a little. I just feel no one listen. I saw merch. No one has ever not been a fan of me already and bought the merchant. It's done.

Gianmarco Soresi
You're not influencing people with the merch, so you might as well take the money. Take the money. I'm all for it. I'm for it, too. Like, this is a good scam, honestly, I told y'all, I was like, do I make blacks for Trump t shirts?

Laci Mosley
Like, I don't know. To make it a full scam, though, would be all the proceeds went to the democratic National park. Now, that would be, like, the scam. Cause they think they're supporting this and they're helping that. And, y'all, we gotta.

We gotta vote for Joe.

Gianmarco Soresi
Is that the slogan? We gotta do it. We gotta do it. I know it was leg 2020, because I told people on this podcast, I was like, well, Trump was like, well, police need to be shooting people in the heart. Kill him.

Laci Mosley
And Joe was like, well, how about if we shoot him in the leg? I remember. And I was like, well, I'ma sell leg. 2020 merch. There's a shot to the heart or a shot to the leg.

We gon get shot. But let's figure out which is better. Political merch is lame. I have a friend. She wears a shirt that says, I'm a Biden bitch.

A Biden bitch. I says, I'm a Biden bitch. First of all, if Biden saw that, he'd be cc, what's your language? I feel like he would love it. I just.

Gianmarco Soresi
See, even when we were at a civil war, no one wore a petticoat that said, I'm a Lincoln whore. You've lost the thread of what we're doing here. The thread been lost, though. Yeah, that's why you might as well make the money. The presidents are too old.

Laci Mosley
Y'all again, Gen X, I'm looking at you. I'm dragging y'all every chance I get. This is y'all's fault. Y'all tapped out like y'all have those commercials that were. It's 10:00 p.m.

where are your kids? Y'all are still lost. Like, y'all need to come back and run the country. It's your turn. Yeah, and they don't want to run the country.

They're like, no, we're good. We not gonna do it. Get somebody else to do it. Who gonna do it? I think Gen X is busy making the merch to profit off all the chaos.

Stop making merch, Gen X and get to your employments. Y'all know what y'all need to be doing right now. Why are the boomers still running the country? They too old. Yeah, we voting for two people who got 2ft in the grave.

And we like, who gonna die last? That's who we voting for every day. You never know. Joe Biden's whole campaign is, I'm alive. If you're a smart merch person, start getting that Kamala Harris merch ready to go.

Gianmarco Soresi
Cause who knows? Any day now, I wanna see the first person that's got those shirts ready. They're like, we could tell you couldn't predict this. Listen, Obama had good merch. That hope, that change that.

Laci Mosley
Oh, with the, with the blue and the red. Oh, yeah, I had all of it. It was cute. Yeah. Yeah.

I wasn't old enough to vote in the first term for him. I had a hat. I'm an Obama slut. It was real popular with my friends. I'm gonna hope I'm a skank.

Now we gotta be biting bitches. We gotta. We got to robbery. At Amica insurance. We know it's more than just a car or a house.

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Laci Mosley
Finding the perfect t shirt has always had me like Goldilocks trying on shirts. This one's too hard, this one's too soft. And it fell apart. Cause y'all know I got it from a cheap website. And this t shirt from skims is just right from fit to quality.

It is one of my, like, these are my favorite t shirts. I have three different ones. Y'all know I love me in Onyx because I'm gonna be wearing black all the time. They have a cotton long sleeve jersey tee that I really like too, because the material is so soft. But when I put it in the washer.

She don't have a whole transformation or makeover. It's not move that bust. When I take it out, she looks the way that she looked when I put her in. And we know we cannot say that for all t shirts. Okay?

So you can have staple t shirts that you can mix and match and wear up or down. Maybe we're going to a fancy night out. Maybe we're going on a date. Maybe we're lounging around the house. I love these shirts so much because I can do so many different things with them.

It's like I'm telling y'all, skims they doing right over there. I got on the underwear right now. I can't give it up. I think they got me, y'all. I'm not even playing.

Shop the skims t shirt shop@skims.com. now available in sizes extra, extra small to four x. If you haven't yet, be sure to let them know I sent you. After you place your order, select scam goddess in the survey, and select my show in the dropdown menu that follows. And fraud.

Well, we're gonna move into my favorite segment of the show, historic hoodwinks. This is where I will regale John Marco with a famous Khan caper group of criminals. We don't know yet. Maybe we like them. Maybe we hate them.

Let's see. 2018. So we're keeping it current. On 1 June night in 2018, Mickey Barretto and his partner, Matthew Hannon checked into the New Yorker hotel. Oh, I love that we're in New York for one night.

He paid $200.57, but he wouldn't be leaving for another five years. Look at him. He right there, that. That haircut. Mickey said, I'm not going nowhere.

I'm staying. I'm staying. He's cute. He's cute. I feel like that's part of why he got away with this.

Gianmarco Soresi
The cheekbones. Yeah, the cheekbones really guided him. So Mickey was born and raised in southern brazilian river town of Urugania. Mm hmm. That's right.

Laci Mosley
I had to pause. He excelled in school in Brazil and moved to the states in the nineties. On 1 June night in 2018, Mickey entered the New Yorker hotel with his boyfriend, Matthew Hannon. Their room was just under 200 sqft, complete with a 42 inch flat screen tv, free HBO, and a view of midtown Manhattan obscured almost entirely by an exterior wall. So I love how that sentence was laid out.

Gianmarco Soresi
It was like the beautiful view of Times Square that they couldn't see. Cause of a wall. Cause of a wall. And, like, now we're looking at the new yorker hotel. Yeah, it's fancy.

Laci Mosley
It's right Empire State building right behind there. The Empire State Building is for scammers. You know how much weird shit is in there? I don't even know what's in there. I used to go to the Empire State Building and buy my hair weave out of there, out of the fubu office for some reason.

There was a man selling hair weave in there. I still go to him. He got good hair weave. Like, why is that happening in the Empire State Building? Like, why?

Gianmarco Soresi
I want to know how much money they make, you know, because they change the lights for special holidays, and sometimes it's very, like, sincere. It's like, well, this is for the terrorist attack somewhere else. And then the other day, it's like today's ketchup and mustard day. So it's red and yellow. Today's Nicki Minaj, today's pink.

Laci Mosley
Like, yeah, it's an interesting place. It's a scammy building for sure. I thoroughly believe that. So they had a beautiful view that was obscured by an exterior wall. Caitlin, why would you write it that way?

So when the New Yorker hotel opened in 1930, it was the second largest in the world and the largest in the city, with 92 telephone operators, a power generating plant, and a radio with four channels in each room. Is that how they describe hotels? We have 92 telephone operators at this hotel. Oh, we better stay there. Hello.

Gianmarco Soresi
It's like horsepower for hotels, right? Patch me into. Yeah, I guess. And also a power generating plant. I guess that's supposed to mean something to us.

What about a gym? Do you got a gym? They don't got a gym, but they got radios with four channels in each room. You gonna hear all the radio that they got. Hell, yeah.

The original podcast. The radio. The original podcast. Wow, how nostalgic. So nowadays, less than half of the rooms are available to guests, and the hotel is showing noticeable signs of age.

Laci Mosley
Cause it's old. Most of the rooms are occupied by followers of reverend son Mayoon Moon, a self proclaimed messiah who brought the hotel. He bought the hotel in 1976 and made it the headquarters of his organization, the unification church. Members of the unification church are also known as moonies and are known for participating in mass weddings. What is a mass wedding?

Gianmarco Soresi
Oh, there you go. You ask, you receive, we receive. This sounds nice. You know, just spreading out all my friends weddings over weekends. I don't got time for that.

Let's knock it all out. Honestly, as millennials, I feel like we need more maz weddings. I'm tired of going to everybody. Individual wedding. It need to be like this.

Laci Mosley
Like, it needs to be like this. It would be fun. I don't know if there's any room for guests, though. I mean, it looks like they're all getting married. I feel like there'd be a lot.

Of, like, unless you get married, who. Has the better wedding dress, who has the better vows? It would get stressful, I think. I mean, you don't have to worry about wearing white and upstage and everybody got they. This is wild.

Gianmarco Soresi
I want to see the kiss the bride moment. It's got to be chaos in there. Like a light little orgy. Who am I kissing? I feel like I kissed the wrong person.

Laci Mosley
Like, oops, no, I didn't marry you. Hold on. Who did I marry? Come over here. You gotta be looking and go like, you know, this is the last time you can change your mind and you could just get it done right there.

Gianmarco Soresi
No one's checking. I'm sure once in a while they said, where'd she go? Oh, my God. Too late, right? He ran out the building.

Laci Mosley
It's over. Yeah. Cause she don't. She got regrets in the front. The one who looking over like, she don't feel.

I don't feel like she wanted. She's like, let's hurry up and get married. Cause you got the bag. But she looking off like, why did I do this? You know when you see somebody in the moment who's reevaluating all the choices they've made in life?

Yes, that's her. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's like, why did. This is wrong. It's too late, though.

I'm in the front. Yeah. None of them look very happy at all. Except for that one. The whole point of a wedding is to celebrate that you tricked somebody into loving you and you getting the government involved.

Gianmarco Soresi
Sure. That's why I think you do it in front of enough friends that you feel like, well, if we end this thing, then we gotta call everybody. Oh, like that toaster oven. Uh huh. There's no way this would be the biggest wedding registry of all time.

If you're part of a cult, the cult needs to provide the toasters, I think. Yeah. And Judith is nodding her head and what's that? A air fryer. I feel like an air fryer.

Sure. But think how much money they save. They get to split the venue costs one dj.

Laci Mosley
Do you think there's one dj that they're doing with a cupid shuffle to. If there's enough room. I mean, you do a Kanai Joe, someone's gonna die. Yeah, you can't shuffle nowhere. It's tight in there.

They got two chairs for everybody. Mm mm. So mass weddings. So shortly before moving from Los Angeles to New York, Matthew mentioned to Mickey, that's our guy who's staying in the hotel. That some hotels in New York were subject to an old rent stabilization rule.

The Rent Stabilization act was passed in 1969 and created a system of rent regulation across the city. In addition to apartments, hotels built before 1969, whose rooms could be rented for less than $88 a week in May 1968 were subject to the law. Whoa. So a hotel guest could become a permanent resident by requesting a lease at a discounted rate. I don't.

When I lived in New York, I had to have a real estate person to find my apartment. They have brokers for apartments out here? Oh, yeah, I got a good. I'm in a rent control department right now. And, I mean, it's like a.

You have to die there. You can't leave. Well, the last guy did. That's how I got it. I mean, I still get the mail.

Gianmarco Soresi
I still get some depressing mail. Let me tell you, you might die, but your insurance debt lives on forever. You saw the coroner pull up and you were like, me? Yup. Roll him out.

Laci Mosley
Roll me in. Yep, pretty much. And it's a great deal. Listen, you gotta stay there. Additionally, any permanent resident also had to be allowed access to the same services as a nightly guest, including room service, house housekeeping, and the use of facilities like.

Oh, John Markov. Oh, my God. To have your own place and housekeeping. Ooh, man, that's nice. And use of all the facilities.

The gym. That's what you wanted. The gym. The gym. John Marco, they got the gym.

Gianmarco Soresi
Wow. So that first night, Mickey and Matthew found the New Yorker on the 27th line of a spreadsheet titled list of Manhattan buildings containing stabilized units. The next morning, Mickey delivered a letter to the hotel manager stating that he wanted a six month lease. So he followed everything to the letter. He was like, I want a six month lease.

Laci Mosley
I know y'all can do this. Cause y'all was open in 1968. Okay. Mickey was told that there was no such thing as a lease at the hotel and that if he did not book another night, he would have to vacate the room by noon. When Mickey and Matthew did not remove their things, the bellhop did, which paved the way for Mickey to head over to the New York City housing court in lower Manhattan and sue the New Yorker.

Hotel. Yo, this is so sick. He found some old laws and was like, these lost the law, and I don't know what y'all think. I wish I could see their face where he said, hey, I'm gonna stay here for six months and just lease it. And they were like, what the fuck are you talking about?

They're like, what are you talking about? And he was like, wait one moment. I'm gonna go sue y'all. Hold on, I'll be right back. That's gotta feel good.

Gianmarco Soresi
When someone takes your stuff out of your room, you feel that rage of like, oh, I'm gonna get you back. Yeah. Ooh, that's gotta feel good. And that's happened to me where I was staying in a hotel, and, like, I did hotel tonight, and I wanted to extend, and normally I can, but it's like, a fancy hotel, and they needed the room. And I was like, no, I'm not leaving.

Laci Mosley
Just extend me. And they were like, no. And I was like, okay. They were like, we'll pack your things up for you. And I was like, yeah, come pack them.

And then when they came and packed them, I felt so dirty watching them pack my stuff. I was like, I don't like this. I was like, I'm staying. They were like, no, you're not. So the ordeal on June 22, 2018, Mickey submitted a handwritten affidavit claiming that his request for a lease made him a permanent resident of the hotel and that removal of his items was considered an illegal eviction.

So when the bellhop did that, he was like, bet. Now I can sue y'all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know how you thought of this, Mickey, but I'm impressed. I don't know how you're the first one to think of it.

Gianmarco Soresi
I mean, I'm hearing this. I'm thinking, is this still there? Is this rule still around? Cause I'll do it right now. Right?

Laci Mosley
I'm like, do we go to the New Yorker after this? We get a hotel, New Yorker, anywhere. Plaza, Waldorf, the w. Whatever. Yeah, wherever.

I'll go to the hotel I'm at right now and tell him I'm a resident. It's a printer in here is serious, right?

Not him. Naughty. Yes. Listen, let's print out our affidavit right now, because I want to do this. So a hearing was held on July 10 of 2018, and with no hotel representatives present to oppose the case, the judge, Jack Stola, ruled in Mickey's favor.

Gianmarco Soresi
Goddamn. God damn. So Judge Stoler not only agreed with Mickey's interpretation of the law. He ordered the hotel, end quote, to restore petitioner to possession of the subject premises forthwith. By providing him with a key here, too, for habeas corpus.

Laci Mosley
Give him a key? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wonder if it was, like, a key card or if it was, like, an iron key. Yeah. If it was one key card.

Gianmarco Soresi
I could see that getting frustrating. Gets demagnetized, right? You know? Well, with that, Mickey returned to room 25 65 almost immediately, this time as a permanent resident. He was like, I live here now.

Incredible. Sensational. Sensational. This is. I'm just thinking about that room service dude.

I'm just thinking about that. Automatic cleaning every night. Every night and day. And he got a gym. Mickey and Matthew determined that in judge Stoller's ruling, there was no order that the hotel provide a lease.

Laci Mosley
No limit on their stay, no suggestion that rent was due. So now they're like, we gonna stay here for free? The judge said, we live here now for free. That's getting a little cocky. Listen, pay something.

Gianmarco Soresi
Pay something. I mean, it could be small, 500 a month or something. But like they said, no, you're pushing it for free. You're pushing your money. We live here for free.

I hope you're tipping the staff, right? I hope you're tipping the staff at least, right? Every time you get your room clean, I hope you're tipping the staff. So Mickey called the court for exact clarification on Judge Stoller's use of the term possession, and was told, you're not a renter. You have possession of a building.

Laci Mosley
Who is Judge Stoller? Because I need to know you, and I need you to be on my side. We need to be besties. Some hotel fucked him at some point. He said, you know what?

Gianmarco Soresi
I'm anti hotel for the rest of my life, right? They didn't turn down his bed. They didn't get him his towels. He had late check in, hot water, didn't work. And he said, I'm taking you down.

Laci Mosley
He said, I'll get my lick back in the car. First person that comes in. I'm gonna say, you own the hotel now, just cause you wanted to. And 1969 law. You own it.

You own it. You own it. Fuck them. You own the hotel. So they were told hotels weren't separated by rooms and that the New Yorker was identified as one entity.

So Mickey tried to file paperwork declaring ownership of the whole hotel. Goddamn. Now, he was repeatedly denied on this, but he said, okay, Judge Stoller bet I own the hotel. They're the ones insisting it's one hotel. It's not one hotel.

Gianmarco Soresi
It's different rooms. No, no, no. He said it's one hotel and I own it. God damn. I stayed here one night, I paid for one night, and now I own it.

Laci Mosley
I love him. So after his 6th attempt, a clerk told him he needed to contact the sheriff's office, who believed Mickey's story that he was denied simply because he had tech problems. What? So at the same time, the unification charge. Remember, they were staying in the New Yorker hotel to the cult.

Yeah, with the mass weddings. They had filed their own lawsuit to evict Mickey. Oh. And claimed that they were exempt from the hotel inclusion of the rent law. Okay, so they were saying that Mickey is exempt from this law.

And they wanted to sue and get. What do they have against Mickey? I don't know. Is Mickey walking in the wedding like, I'm gonna get some of these hors d'oeuvres. He went to too many mass weddings and got way too many, like, chicken options and shrimps and fishes.

Gianmarco Soresi
They're like, speak now or have her hold your peace. And he's like, I'm speaking just for that couple. And that one there and these two over here, that's. Mickey was like, I have thoughts. Her in the front, she don't look happy.

You don't look happy at all. He wanna run for the door. I have thoughts. He had too many thoughts at the mass wedding. So they were like, we gotta get Mickey out of here.

Listen, this cult sad. Listen, at least when you hear the word mass with a cult, usually it's a lot sadder than a wedding. So we gotta be thankful for that at least. I guess that's true. Cause mass is not.

You know, they're drinking regular Kool aid. How nice is that? That's true. This Kool aid you stay alive after. Yeah, yeah.

Laci Mosley
It's not giving the seventies. So the unification church was trying to get Mickey up out of there. I don't know what their beef is with him, but they was trying to get him out. The judge dismissed the suit because the hotel was unable to prove that in May 1968, the hotel's weekly rate was more than $88 a week. They couldn't prove it.

Gianmarco Soresi
Sure. I don't know why that's the sticking point here of dollar 88 a week, but. Ok, so Mickey filed for a deed for the 7th time. This time it was accepted. Wow.

Laci Mosley
A deed to the hotel. Vicki. Smart guy. Your perseverance, Mickey. Cause you stayed there one time, and the bellhop moved your stuff, and you were like, perfect.

I'm going to the courthouse. This is a wrongful eviction, and you filed seven times. At one point, like, his 6th attempt, the clerk said, contact the sheriff's office. Like, go to the police. Like, what are we doing?

Gianmarco Soresi
First of all, I didn't know New York had a sheriff. When I hear a sheriff, I think. I'm thinking, you know, old wild west. Right? Me too.

Laci Mosley
But, I mean, that makes sense. It's like LA. They got all the police here. All the budget goes to the police. Sure, they got all the.

All types of police, but they were like, this ain't this above me? This is above me. Go to the sheriff's office. And on the 7th time, it was accepted the deed, he owned the hotel. Incredible.

So Mickey, the owner. In New York City, a change of ownership is recorded in the automatic city register information system, or the Acris. Thousands of documents are received daily, far too many for employees to individually scrutinize before publishing. So they're, like, inundated. They're like, we can't look at this.

Gianmarco Soresi
Yeah, yeah. Like, I don't have to listen to the sign. I can't read. Yeah. So they're not paying attention, right?

Laci Mosley
On the afternoon of May 17, 2019, Mickey was identified in the acris as the owner of the New Yorker hotel, a 1.2 million square foot building. Dude. Insane. It was like, it's mine, it's mine. I own it now.

Even though he was listed in the database as the owner, the Unitarian church was still the true and genuine owner of the hotel. That's probably why they was trying to get Mickey out of there. They knew he was trying to own stuff, and they were like, mickey, do. You think he gets to be like, I'm the Messiah now? I'm the head of the cult?

Gianmarco Soresi
Sorry. Legally, according to 1969. Yeah, I'm not ahead of Mickey. You, so fine. You doing crime.

Laci Mosley
He doing crime. So that's probably why they wanted him out of there. Cause they were like, he's trying to own our building that we own for our scams. Yeah, that's what I like about this. There's a lot of scammers going on.

Gianmarco Soresi
So, you know. Right. They're like, we're all running scams, but, like, you're getting in the way of our scam. I'm not. All those poor cults.

They lost their cult, right? Oh, no. So Mickey. Mickey then contacted a lawyer for the hotel, demanding to know about the property's finances and claiming he was owed $15 million in profits. So now, Nikki.

Mickey. Mickey. Bald as hell. I. You should have been.

You could have been content with the one room. Now you want $15 million too. He went from the one room to I need to own the hotel to also pay me $15 million. Nuts. So a few days later, he demanded the 38th floor be cleared of guests in order to do an inspection of the building for a series of upgrades.

And they were like, oh, that's where the honeymoon suites are for all the weddings. Too many weddings. They're gonna have to have two couples per room. Fucking. It's gonna be a mess.

Laci Mosley
I mean, look, they already had their mass wedding. They might as well have mass rooms. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. Mass honeymoons. So he then tried to collect rent from the connected diner, the TikTok diner.

And not to be confused with TikTok, this just a di. This is the diner that's connected to the building. He was like, I want rent. He's gonna pivot us into owning TikTok somehow, right? He was like, I'm not paying rent, but y'all need to pay me rent right now.

So he dropped off a letter to the owner stating rent checks should be sent to room 25 65. He was like, I own the building now and y'all owe me rent, and y'all need to send it to my hotel, room 25 65. This is off 34th street. I think what I love about this is it feels so illegal. But he's only doing it through legal systems, right?

Gianmarco Soresi
Everything. He's just using the laws. He's like, y'all didn't check on these laws. Y'all didn't change these laws, so I'm gonna use em. Listen, I'm not mad.

Laci Mosley
So upon receiving the letter, the diner's owner called the hotel owners, who told him to ignore Mickey's demands. Mickey and Matthew continued to eat at the diner and did not mention rent again. So they were like, okay, just playing. Y'all don't wanna give us money. It's good.

We still gonna eat here? Yeah, yeah. He tried it though. I feel like he'd just be trying stuff and it be working out. Yeah, I wonder why.

Gianmarco Soresi
Wonder why. He's like, oh, this is too much. Okay, leave the diner alone. Okay? Y'all don't wanna.

Laci Mosley
Y'all don't wanna give me rent? Okay, nevermind. I was just playing. The 15 million is enough. I guess y'all know I'm goofy.

I'll just be playing. It's just me, Mickey. It's okay. They kept eating there, which I'm like, y'all have no shame, and I love it. So two days after Mickey petitioned the diner for rent, a lawyer from the hotel was in court, pleading for the judge to issue an order to stop Mickey from representing himself as the owner.

Gianmarco Soresi
So now I like to really imagine him pleading like, judge, come on. This is crazy. I know the law, but this is crazy. He's like, yeah, but y'all didn't want to give me no towels, so. Uh huh.

Laci Mosley
I said, I need to check out late, and y'all said I couldn't check out late, so what's up? It's definitely giving. Judge has a vendetta. So several months later, the judge determined Mickey's deed was forged and that he was not the owner. Oh, Mickey the resident.

So even though Mickey wasn't the owner, okay, he was still a legal resident, albeit one that had refused to sign a lease or pay at all. Uh huh. With no job, he spent hours every day researching the unification church's business connections with North Korea. So he been beefing with the unification church, and they beefing back with him. Now he's researching them.

Cause he ain't got no job. Yeah. His hobby became his job. It's gotta be. I wonder if he was involved in law or he's just studying it just, like, just for the soul.

Some people are born lawyers, and maybe they don't go to law school, but he has a lawyer's mind. For sure. Yeah, for sure. Sometimes you don't go to school, but you know what you're doing. You got your degree, and you know every damn thing.

Like. But it's like, I don't know if you ever, like. It's like when you learn, like, one song on the piano, but you can't play piano, but you're like, I'm gonna learn this one key. It's like he just knows this one segment of the law. He knows all this about North Korea, but just for this one call, he.

Plays it so well. He plays it beautifully. Convinced me he can't do anything else for shit. But he does this one thing. So beautiful.

Ooh, and it sounds so good. We're convinced. The judge was convinced. He was like, you own the hotel. And so with no job, he spent, you know, every day researching the unification church's business.

Right. He came to believe that the church leaders were sending its income to North Korea and that his concerns about the finances of the church and subsequently the hotel were the main reason he stayed. So now he's like, I'm worried about where the money going. It's giving weird. Uh huh.

It's going to North Korea. Kim Jong un getting all the ducats. Uh huh. At the mass wedding. So he believed it was his patriotic duty as an american citizen.

Gianmarco Soresi
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was Mickey. What do you feel in your heart? In one interview, he said, quote, I'm sorry I disrupted your attempt to finance weapons of mass destruction. It's Mickey Barretto versus North Korea.

Laci Mosley
What? Mickey. Mickey. Now it's you against North Korea, Mickey. Wait, was he from Brazil originally, yeah.

Gianmarco Soresi
And now he's just. Now he's a patriot. Now he's a patriot fighting North Korea one hotel at a time. One hotel at a time. So finally, in July 2023, the unification church succeeded in evicting Mickey from the hotel on account of his refusal to pay or sign a lease.

Laci Mosley
He lived there for five years, didn't pay a dime. Yeah, sounds like. But it sounds like he didn't, like, get a job on the side or save up money. That's all he did. No, he used his resources for pettiness.

He was like, I'm gonna start researching and be petty. I hope he got some good room service meals, though. I do too. I hope so. I hope that every night, there was a chocolate on his pillow.

There was just some good turn down. I haven't had chocolate on my pillow since I was a little kid. Like, I came to a hotel, my dad would come up here, but I haven't seen chocolates on pillow in a long time. I miss it. He got it.

Gianmarco Soresi
He deserved little chocolate with Kim Jong un's face on it. So they finally. Unification Church finally got his ass up out of there, right? All the while, Mickey had not stopped portraying himself as the hotel's owner. And in September, he successfully submitted another deed showing that the hotel had once again been transferred into his name.

Laci Mosley
So this is his 8th deed. He's not even living there anymore. He was like, it's still mines, though. It's still mines. I'm impressed.

I love that. He just kept going to court. It was like, hey, it's me again, Mickey. So the transfer caused the hotel to lose a property tax exemption, resulting in a $2.9 million increase on the property tax of the hotel. So now Mickey's costing the hotel money.

Gianmarco Soresi
This is crazy. This whole thing. I just. This hotel thought it was like, what the fuck is this guy over here? And suddenly he owns the hotel.

Laci Mosley
He went from one night, he paid for one night to owning the hotel, to then losing the hotel to then re owning it. Again, getting evicted in between. Say, judge, can you say he can't own it? He was like, well, actually, he does own it now. You're like, what the fuck, dude?

Like, the lawyer being like, please, he can't own the hotel. Come on, this is goofy. And the judge was like, nah, not goofy to me. I think it's very serious. So in February 2024, Mickey was arrested and arraigned on 24 counts, including 14 felony fraud.

Counts of what? I don't know. Where. Did he misrepresent himself? I think he did a good job.

So when cops arrived at his door, he thought that his boyfriend had hired them. Uh oh. He said, I. This is a quote. I.

Oh, I thought you were doing something for Valentine's Day to spice the relationship up until I saw the female officers. Whoa. What kind of. What kind of sex life do you have that you see sirens outside your door and you're like, uh oh, someone's getting late tonight. Someone's getting kinky.

You saw the f. The b in the I, and you were like, ooh, frisky. They must be having a good time in this relationship. Cause I don't. Not to be crude, but I feel like sometimes when you go to a hotel with a lover, you know, you go wild.

Gianmarco Soresi
Imagine five years of that. Five years of sex where room service is taking care of it. They're having a wild five years. So that's why they got to the point of cops coming in. They gotta, you know, normal sex is nothing to these guys.

Laci Mosley
They're like, this makes sense. Attracts hotel sex for five years. Yes. Oh, my God. With an obscured view of the Times Square.

Gianmarco Soresi
Oh, that's gotta be hot. So nobody can see you while you're recklessly boning. Oh, wow. Yeah, you're right. He was like, yeah, it makes sense.

Laci Mosley
The FBI's here. That tracks. Yeah, yeah, it's kinky. He was like, oh, no, they arrested me for real. He was like, oh, put the cuffs on me.

And he was like, wait a minute. Yeah, y'all putting the cuffs on me for real? Wait, were y'all reading me my rights? What's going on? Ooh, make him tighter.

Gianmarco Soresi
Oh, where are you taking me? Oh, car sex, too? Hell, yeah. He was like, wait, to jail. Jail sex.

At what point do you realize this is not part of the game? At what point do you realize you're being arrested for real? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, ooh, throw me in the bag. You're like, oh, you got ten years of prison.

Oh, tantric sex. Okay, I'll wait. Tease me, not ten years of teasing. Ooh, we're doing the dividers on the phone. Some phone sex, too.

Laci Mosley
Ooh, let me touch my hand to the glass. So Mickey claims that Matthew wasn't involved in any way beyond staying with him. And so he was not charged for any crime. So he took care of his boo. He was like, my boo.

Matthew not involved. I'm the only criminal. I'm gonna take care of him. So he's currently awaiting trial right now and is facing several years in prison if convicted. Mickey says he used his one phone call to dial the white house and let them know where he was.

Gianmarco Soresi
Joe, I have a way for you to turn this campaign around. You free Mickey. That's a badass move. You say I am on the side of the tenant. This is the prisoner release we need.

Laci Mosley
This is the pardon that the people want. I mean, listen, you want to stick it to trump, you go against the hotels. You know what? How about we all. I own a Trump hotel now?

Gianmarco Soresi
Let's do it. We could probably own it. I bet you their laws aren't up to date. We could go. No.

No way. We can get the deed. Let's do it. I think we need to get the deed. I want a deed to a hotel now.

Laci Mosley
I didn't know it was as easy. Mm. I like Mickey. Like, normally, I'm always trying to figure out if I like the scammer. And these days, sometimes I hate them.

Gianmarco Soresi
Sure. But I feel like I like Mickey. I think everything he did was so unserious and good. And ultimately, what's. What's the crime?

He had one room. He had a room. You think that cult. You think that cult's got a couple crimes? I think a couple, yeah.

Laci Mosley
I'm not on the side of the cult. I could see the cult wanting to get rid of his ass. Cause clearly, he was a nuisance. Yeah. Could the cult.

Gianmarco Soresi
Oh, one less couple gets to be married at the mass wedding. Cause you don't have a room. You'll be okay. Bump up to the next one. Why does a cult need a hotel?

I. Yeah, what happened to the cults that you stay in a tent, you stay in a cabin in the woods? Too fancy. You can't be a cult to be this fancy. Nah, they're running too high now.

Laci Mosley
They were like, we need new members, and we gotta have someplace for them to stay when we steal them from their families. So we need this hotel. If you're joining a cult, you don't get housekeeping. Old fashioned cults. You were the housekeeping for the messiah.

Gianmarco Soresi
That's how it works. Yeah. You built the roofs. You cleaned the rooms. That was a part of it.

Yeah. You give them your money or you give them your labor or both, and they're like, nah, nah.

Laci Mosley
Mickey, I think you did a good job here. I'm not mad at it. You applied to own this place eight times. You owned it twice. Two out of eight of.

Owning a hotel is pretty good numbers. That's pretty good odds. Yeah. I have no notes. I just.

Gianmarco Soresi
I always have to support the. This hotel. They're doing fine. Too many hotels in New York as it is. They're probably overcharging.

They could spare one room. I understand. If this becomes an epidemic, every hotel shuts out, maybe you got a problem. Give them a room. All of New York has been, you know, gutted, and there's no local, there's no culture.

It's just hotels. So I'm on the side. I'm on the side of Mickey. I'm on the side of Mickey 100%. Listen, when he bought it for the 8th time with no money, he was trying to make some renovations.

Laci Mosley
He was trying to get it cute. Listen, you think the hotel doesn't use the laws to fuck some people out of their money along the way? Get out of here. Oh, now, one person does a hotel, now it's a crime. One person owns a hotel.

Cause they said he could own it. I don't. I don't see a problem. He owns it. Sorry, guys.

Gianmarco Soresi
Yeah, we're renaming it. Give it back to him. Let him out of prison, and give him the New Yorker hotel back. Yeah, he owns it. Oh, man.

Laci Mosley
All right, well, that brings us to the end of a very fun episode. Jenn Marco. We always ask, where would you like to be found? Anything you wanna plug your socials where people can watch you and your stand up. Yes.

Gianmarco Soresi
You can find me everywhere at my name, Gianmarco Soresi. That's spelled with a g. And I'm Torrin in all around the country. Canada, Australia, Europe. And you can find it all on my socials or my website, jamarcosaraici.com, and then listen to my podcast.

The downside. Yes. With Jamarcos Arasi, the downside is amazing. You can hear Lacy's episode there as well. Gianmarcosoresi.com.

Perfect. All right, and then, y'all, you can find me at D I B a L a c I divalacie on all platforms if you want to see my shenanigans. And if you want to follow the show scam got us pod. If you want to see these pictures, I will start posting on time again, y'all, I'm tired. And just so you know, I did research the laws before this.

I am actually now the host of the Scam Goddess podcast. According to a 1978 radio law. Put that deed away. Put that deed away. Where did you get that deed?

Laci Mosley
No. Put that deed away. Y'all printed this for him? Y'all printed this right now? I can't believe it is.

I don't own it anymore. Y'all scam got it.

This has been an earwoof production in association with team Coco scam Goddess stars and is hosted by me, Lacey Moseley, aka scam goddess. Our producer is Judith Cargbo, and our audio engineer is Rich Garcia. Research for the show is done by Kailyn Brandt. Stay scheming.

Amica Insurance
Every day, our world gets a little more connected, but a little further apart. But then there are moments that remind us to be more human. Thank you for calling Amica insurance. Hey, uh, I was just in an accident. Don't worry.

Laci Mosley
We'll get you taken care of. At Amica, we understand that looking out for each other isn't new or groundbreaking. It's human. Amika. Empathy is our best policy.

T-Mobile
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Gianmarco Soresi
See 5g device coverage and access details at t mobile.com.

The Savvy Squatter of NYC w/ Gianmarco Soresi

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1: Introduction

2: Guest Introduction

3: The Main Story

4: Legal and Psychological Aspects

5: Conclusion

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