https://w42st.com/post/jennifer-jacq...housing-fraud/
A former Bronx prosecutor, along with her brother and mother, was indicted on numerous felony fraud charges for perpetrating an elaborate multi-year scheme to obtain affordable housing units in luxury buildings across Hell’s Kitchen that they were not qualified for, the Manhattan District Attorney announced in a statement. The defendants, Jennifer Jacques, 38, Samuel Jacques, 34, and Marielle Jacques, 66, are accused of lying on housing applications and repeatedly providing false documentation in order to defraud city housing agencies and secretly secure heavily discounted rental units and purchase opportunities since 2017, enabling them to live in coveted addresses they otherwise could not afford.
“The affordable housing lottery is a crucial part of our city’s commitment to providing homes for New Yorkers of all backgrounds and incomes,” said District Attorney Bragg. “As alleged, this family manipulated that critical program to enrich themselves by lying and forging documents for years.”
The alleged scheme was led by Jennifer Jacques and took advantage of housing lotteries intended to provide affordable homes for moderate and low-income New Yorkers. According to the indictment, Jennifer Jacques has been living in a discounted one-bedroom apartment at SKY, a luxury 54-story high-rise at 605 W42nd Street and 11th Avenue, since 2018. She rented the apartment under her 93-year-old grandmother’s name, Marie Thomas, who requires round-the-clock care and actually lives with Jennifer Jacques mother, Marielle, in an affordable unit at
Gotham West, a luxury complex located at 530 W45th Street.
In 2017, the affordable housing lottery for rental apartments at SKY received more than 90,000 applications for just 166 affordable housing units. Due to her mobility disability, Marie Thomas’s application received preferential review and prioritized status in the lottery review process.
According to court records, from July 16, 2018, to September 13, 2023, Jennifer Jacques paid over $40,000 in rent for the unit at SKY (roughly $645 per month). All but the first two payments were made from an account Jennifer Jacques opened on August 31, 2018, listing the apartment as her address on the account opening documents. The market rate for a comparable apartment at SKY from July 1, 2018, to October 31, 2023, at a monthly rental fee of $4,835, would have been almost $310,000, more than seven times higher than the affordable housing rate.
Jennifer Jacques also illegally rented out an apartment on Frederick Douglass Boulevard that she had purchased at a discount through an affordable housing program while living in SKY, collecting over $225,000 in rental payments in violation of the city’s housing residency requirements.
Meanwhile, her brother Samuel maintained a separate affordable unit lease for an apartment located uptown, despite regulations limiting renters to just one reduced-cost home. He did surrender the apartment at
West 117th Street in November 2022 when he owed over $14,000 in back rent, according to court papers. Samuel then provided his mother’s apartment, yet another affordable housing unit at
Gotham West, as his forwarding address on the surrender agreement, even though he was the tenant of record and allegedly living in the apartment at SKY where his sister Jennifer was residing.
Marielle Jacques has rented a two-bedroom affordable housing unit at
Gotham West since June 8, 2014. Despite her mother, Marie Thomas, living in the apartment, Marielle failed to report this on the required annual tenant income certifications for calendar years 2019 through 2023. Rather, she falsely reported to her landlord that she was the only tenant on those five annual certifications.
The elaborate scheme began unraveling last year when the family’s application to purchase yet another discounted apartment, valued at $212,619, at 505 W43rd Street (formerly known as Charlie
West) was rejected. After the Housing Partnership Development Corporation (HPD) detected discrepancies and rejected the Jacques family’s application in March, the Department of Investigations found evidence the family provided false information and forged documents throughout the process.
Jennifer Jacques — a licensed attorney and former Bronx County Assistant District Attorney from 2008-2012 who, according to her LinkedIn, also formerly worked as Assistant General Counsel at JP Morgan Chase in the Litigation Division and “spearhead a small unit with a focus on Money Laundering involving pre-paid cards and the Mexican Black Pesos Market” — was arrested at the apartment on the 41st floor of SKY on December 6, 2023.
The defendants face a range of felony charges, including Grand Larceny, Offering a False Instrument for Filing, Falsifying Business Records, Scheme to Defraud, Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument and Forgery.
The charges contained in the indictment are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. All factual recitations are derived from documents filed in court and statements made on the record in court.
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