Gluck’s tenants accused of fraud

Pianist accused of improperly receiving Section 8 funds

The New York City Department of Investigation’s peek into the goings on at once Mitchell-Lama Regulated Independence Plaza in Tribeca have revealed more alleged crimes, DNAinfo reported. Antonio Fermin, a noted pianist and former teacher at the Juilliard School, was arrested Tuesday for hiding his Sagaponack, N.Y. home, valued at $1 million, from the city in order to receive Section 8 rent subsidies for a two-bedroom apartment at Independence Plaza.

Fermin is accused of improperly receiving $17,815 in Section 8 housing funds from July 2004 to September 2009 to live at the complex, at 80 North Moore Street. Another tenant, Cherie Williams, of Brooklyn, was also arrested and charged with stealing Section 8 funds on April 5, DNAinfo said.

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Independence Plaza developer Laurence Gluck has been in court answering to charges that he illegally deregulated the apartments at the 1,328-unit Tribeca project. But a state Appellate Court held last week that he did not, reversing an earlier ruling to the contrary, as The Real Deal reported at the time.

Independence Plaza left the Mitchell-Lama rent-stabilization program in 2004, but Section 8 tenants were allowed to apply for vouchers so they wouldn’t have to move, DNAinfo said. [DNAinfo]