Self-proclaimed ‘Wolf of Airbnb’ speedruns the Wolf of Wall Street, headed to prison

Some of the more entertaining wire fraud lawsuits over the last few years have been cases involving folks who illegally obtained Paycheck Protection Program loans. Few, if any, PPP wire fraud cases have been more entertaining than that of Konrad Bicher, the self-proclaimed “Wolf of Airbnb.” From Bloomberg:

A Florida man who styled himself the “Wolf of Airbnb” will serve 4 1/4 years in prison after admitting he defrauded New York City landlords by illegally listing apartments for short-term rental. Konrad Bicher, 32, was sentenced on Monday after pleading guilty last year to a single count of wire fraud.

Prosecutors said Bicher leased more than a dozen apartments in Manhattan that the city had barred from short-term rental to third parties or that couldn’t be subleased without the owner’s consent. They say he failed to pay the rent while listing the units on marketplaces including Airbnb. He and his associates made at least $1.17 million in income from the units while withholding more than $1 million in rent between July 2019 and April 2022, according to the US.

Bicher was also accused of obtaining more than half a million dollars in loans guaranteed by the government through a Small Business Administration program designed to provide relief for companies affected by the pandemic.

Consider me shocked, and I mean shocked, that the guy who idolized Jordan Belfort, the former stockbroker who spent 22 months in federal prison and was ordered to repay $110 million in restitution, committed wire fraud. This quote, from the jury’s indictment, is just perfect:

During the course of the scheme, Konrad Bicher, the defendant, referred to himself as the “Wolf of Airbnb,” and explained to media outlets that this nickname referred to the fact that he was “hungry and ruthless enough to get on top of the financial ladder” and had the “ferocity… of a wolf, because wolves are territorial, vicious and show no mercy when provoked.”

Curbed published an entertaining profile on Bicher in November 2022, and The Real Deal first covered various landlords suing the Wolf in February 2022. Both pieces are worth reading in full, but to summarize the situation:

Bicher, originally a Mennonite from rural Pennsylvania, moved to New York when he was 23, and he lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Inwood. To reduce costs, he rented out the spare bedroom in his apartment, and then he had the giga-brain idea that he could make even more money by renting and subletting even more apartments around the city. Over the next eight years, he leased dozens of apartments and listed them on Airbnb, Craigslist, and other short-term rental sites.

There are a couple of things wrong with this picture: 1) most New York City landlords prohibit subletting, and 2) New York City has strict rules regarding short-term rentals, leading to multiple lawsuits during the time that Bicher was operating (see here and here, for example) concerning illegal listings.

Bicher was renting some apartments to short-term tenants, occasionally double-booking the same unit, and he rented out one high-end unit by the hour to photographers and influencers for photo shoots. He was sued by at  least two landlords in 2019 and 2020 for subletting apartments, but the cases were dismissed because the landlords failed to serve Bicher (correctly “serving” a tenant is a tedious process. For example, papers left with a neighbor or doorman aren’t considered to be “served” correctly).

Once the pandemic hit, Bicher went a step further: he stopped paying rent while continuing to sublet the apartments, making an estimated $1.17 million in rent while paying nothing, and he falsified IRS documentation to obtain more than $565,000 in PPP loans. Naturally, he was also referring to himself as “The Wolf of Airbnb” on Instagram at this time, posting pictures of himself on private jets and driving Ferraris. Most of Bicher’s lawsuits, per the Curbed article, stemmed from not paying rent, and eventually, the FBI investigated him for PPP fraud.

The irony of this whole situation is that, if Bicher had simply continued to pay his rent, and not illegally obtained $565,000 in PPP loans, he might not be going to prison right now? The two subletting-related lawsuits Bicher faced before the pandemic were dismissed, and I imagine that most landlords won’t want to deal with the headache of a years-long litigation process as long as they’re getting paid. But if you stop paying rent and tell your landlord’s attorney, “This is my home and i live here, due to the pandemic i can not legally be evicted. If these accusations do not stop i will need to retain my attorneys and sue,” you shouldn’t really be surprised if you do end up in court and, eventually, prison.