Photo Illustration by Joel Gilbert (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
Guest post by Joel Gilbert
Attorney General Letitia James, the architect of New York state’s mortgage-fraud crackdowns, now finds herself in the position of her former defendants, accused of exploiting the very system she once claimed to defend. The hypocrisy is undeniable.
Any attempt by Letitia James to claim ignorance of the law as a defense in her mortgage fraud indictment is all but gone.
In June 2019, New York Attorney General Letitia James stood before the cameras to hail a conviction she called a triumph against mortgage fraud.
The case involved a $1.3 million scheme by Brooklyn couple John F. Iacono and Shpresa Gjekovic, whom James accused of “a deliberate scheme to enrich themselves at the expense of hardworking New Yorkers.”
At the time, she declared the prosecution was proof that “no one is above the law”.
But today, now under indictment for mortgage fraud herself, that speech reads less like a moment of triumph and more like an act of projection.
The accompanying quote from Attorney General James remains striking for its tone of moral absolutism.
“Iacono and Gjekovic falsified document after document in order to pad their own pockets,” James said. “Let this serve as a warning to all of those who try to carry out such deliberate schemes: There is no place in this state for individuals who try to cash in at the expense of hardworking New Yorkers.”
Those words, “no place in this state,” once echoed across newsrooms as the declaration of a moral crusader.
Her CUFFS Initiative (Combatting Upstate Financial Frauds and Schemes) was marketed as a model for restoring faith in financial integrity, pairing state police with prosecutors to “expose deceitful plots” and reinforce public trust.
According to her office’s 2019 press release, Iacono and Gjekovic orchestrated an elaborate scheme between April 2016 and March 2017 using phony bank records to secure over $1.3 million in fraudulent loans to defraud lenders across upstate New York.
Fast forward to the present. The same Letitia James who condemned others for falsifying mortgage documents is now accused of doing the same, but on a far broader scale.
My investigations reveal she misrepresented her properties for decades to secure lower interest rates and closing costs she was not entitled to.
As I documented in The Gateway Pundit beginning in March 2025, Letitia James engaged in 24 years of mortgage fraud and housing regulation violations in connection with her 5-unit Brooklyn apartment building.
James obtained lower interest rates by falsely representing her building as having less than five units, a key threshold for obtaining lower residential lending terms and avoiding more expensive commercial rates and closing costs.
James also failed to register her apartment building and tenant leases for rent stabilization as required, depriving New York City of regulatory oversight and tenants of lawful protections.
James even lied on her very first mortgage application, claiming to be married to her father to qualify for a loan.
My colleague Sam Antar reported that James falsely declared a property in Virginia she co-purchased in 2023 with her niece as her primary residence, thereby obtaining lower interest rates.
Even more troubling, James publicly stated that the property was purchased to provide shelter for her niece’s daughter, Nikia Monique Thompson, a fugitive absconder wanted on parole violations in North Carolina with an active arrest warrant.
The parallels between James and the Iacono-Gjekovic case are striking. Both included falsified documents, self-enrichment, and manipulation of financial institutions.
Yet while James’s former defendants were punished swiftly, James today portrays herself as a victim of political persecution.
At a rally for Zohran Mamdani, James thundered, “We are witnessing the fraying of our democracy, the erosion of our system of government,” James said. “This, my friends, is a defining moment in our history.”
Further, James introduced an entirely new process for the system of justice. “You come for me, you got to come though all of us,” James roared to a cheering crowed. “Every single one of us!”
Her defiance was a blend of moral outrage and self-preservation. But for a public official who built her brand on integrity and reform, it has created an unmistakable perception: rules for thee, but not for me.
Today the image of Letitia James from 2019 denouncing mortgage fraudsters has become a joke.
Her own name now sits beside the phrase “mortgage fraud investigation” in search results, an ironic reversal that underscores how swiftly the hunter can become the hunted, as Steve Bannon has said.
Public office carries not just legal but moral obligation. It’s ultimately trust and moral credibility that sustains the rule of law and democracy itself.
If Letitia James once insisted there was “no place in this state” for mortgage fraud, then she must now face that standard herself and resign her office. Because in the end, the measure of justice is whether we live by the laws we impose on others.
Joel Gilbert is a Los Angeles-based film producer and president of Highway 61 Entertainment. He is the producer of the new film Roseanne Barr Is America. He is also the producer of: Dreams from My Real Father, The Trayvon Hoax, Trump: The Art of the Insult, and many other films on American politics and music icons. Gilbert is on Twitter: @JoelSGilbert.
The post Rules for Thee, Fraud for Me: Letitia James Prosecuted Mortgage Fraud Case Mirroring the Charges Against Her appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.