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A flashy wheeler-dealer who calls himself the “Wolf of Airbnb” has been carrying out an illegal short-term rental scheme in a luxury Midtown Manhattan condo building, new court papers allege.
Konrad Bicher, 30 – who has been targeted over similar issues in about 20 other cases – was slapped with the new Manhattan lawsuit for allegedly using a 450 W. 42nd St. rental unit to host illegal stays through Airbnb and offering up the posh pad even on an hourly basis for music videos and photo shoots.
Bicher’s “modus operandi is to enter into leases for Manhattan residential apartments or, as here, worm his way into occupancy, and run a type of ‘bust-out’ operation,” according to Monday’s supreme-court lawsuit seeking more than $1.5 million.
“That includes renting the apartment out as a profit center through Airbnb, Peerspace and other similar platforms for short-term rentals, failing to pay rent, using the pandemic and laws related thereto to delay any proceedings, and to vacate on the point of eviction,” the filing alleges.
It is against the law in New York City to rent out an entire apartment for fewer than 30 days in such buildings.
Bicher has previously been accused of similar claims in the other lawsuits, according to the Real Deal.
Asked why he calls himself the “Wolf of Airbnb,” Bicher responded in a text to the outlet, “The Wolf of Airbnb: It means someone who is hungry and ruthless enough to get on top of the financial ladder. They compare the ferocity to that of a wolf, because wolves are territorial, vicious and show no mercy when provoked.”
Bicher’s social-media accounts have included photos of him enjoying private jets and exotic locales, the outlet said.
The latest suit against Bicher was filed by building landlord 42nd and 10th Associates LLC. It says Haley Frey signed a lease for unit 43B starting May 19, 2019, but a few months later, in August, she added Bicher as an occupant on the apartment and that the pair started running illegal short-term rentals out of it.
In fact, Frey hasn’t even been in the 42nd Street building since the July 2019 move-in date, the suit claims.
Starting in November 2019, doormen at the building started noticing that guests with suitcases and sometimes camera equipment were repeatedly coming and going from the condo – an occurrence that kept up for the next couple of years, court documents allege.
On May 2, 2020, a guest didn’t know the name of the person who supposedly lived in the apartment and told the doorman they were staying there through Airbnb, the suit says.
Fewer than two weeks later, a person going to the apartment claimed to be Frey — despite the concierge noticing that they didn’t look like the photo that was on file for the supposed resident, the lawsuit claims.
But the person headed to the elevator, claiming, “Konrad said it’s OK,” the document says.
Another time, on Sept. 3, 2020, someone asked for the key to the unit and soon after, 16 more people came with camera equipment, the suit claims.
Two more people visited in September, prompting the landlord to discover that Bicher had a listing on Peerspace for a $97 hourly rental with a minimum of three hours — and that its 15 reviews included one by a person who used the pad for a film shoot, the lawsuit says.
“There was an ever-changing cast of strangers with luggage coming in and out of the apartment for short-term stays,” the filing alleges. “Defendants would leave notices to building personnel that these short-term transients were their ‘guests,’ and would leave cloned copies of key fobs.”
The building notified Frey that only lease-holders could leave keys for guests, prompting the defendant in an Aug. 5, 2021, e-mail to claim that Bicher was her husband, the suit claims.
When building management finally sent a cease-and-desist letter to Frey, she responded in a March 4, 2022 e-mail, “Can we work out a settle [sic] agreement to pay me to leave? Otherwise, I’ll keep the unit for years and litigate,” the lawsuit alleges.
The landlords are suing Frey and Bicher for $1.5 million plus at least $10,000 in legal fees.
In other cases, Bicher allegedly claimed he couldn’t afford rent when facing eviction proceedings, forcing to be put on hold all while he was allegedly granted pandemic relief funds to the tune of $141,875, the suit claims.
It was unclear if Bicher has a lawyer for Monday’s lawsuit. A lawyer who has repped him in his other cases didn’t return a Post request for comment.
Working phone numbers for Bicher and Frey couldn’t be found.
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