A real-estate investor who calls himself the "Wolf of Airbnb" was indicted for defrauding New York City landlords while neglecting to pay rent, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

Konrad Bicher, 31, is charged with two counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. The Hialeah, Fla., resident is also accused of fraudulently obtaining over $565,000 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, which were intended to help small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York allege that Bicher "brazenly" leased at least 18 apartments with no intent of paying rent, operating the properties as "mini-hotels."

"When landlords sought to recover rental payments from Bicher, he lied and claimed that he could not make payments during the pendency of the COVID-19 pandemic," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. "At the same time, Bicher obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars in PPP money based on multiple fraudulent applications."

WISCONSIN MAN CHARGED WITH ELECTION FRAUD, IDENTITY THEFT

Bicher and his associates refused to pay over $1 million in outstanding fair market charges between July 2019 and April 2022. The investor continued to rent out the properties after his leases expired, making at least $1.17 million in income by listing the rentals on Airbnb. 

"Bicher abused government programs and tenant protections intended to benefit New Yorkers in crisis, and he will have to answer for his conduct.," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said.

"As alleged, the defendant proudly executed multiple schemes to defraud both private entities and the United States government for his own personal benefit," FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael J. Driscoll said.

FBI RAISES FLAG ON ELDER FRAUD AFTER THOUSANDS OF RETIREES ARE SCAMMED OUT OF $1.7 BILLION

Bicher's website calls him a "real estate mogul" and "New York-based millionaire." During the scheme, Bicher referred to himself as the "Wolf of Airbnb" to media outlets, explaining that he was "hungry and ruthless enough to get on top of the financial ladder."

"Konrad Bicher formulated Nomad Enterprise in 2013 and ventured into the Airbnb rental market with the vision to revolutionize the industry," his website says, along with a claim that he has "secured over $12 million through Airbnb properties."

If convicted, Bicher faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for each of his wire fraud charges, with an additional two-year sentence for his aggravated identity theft charge.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis hammered the Biden administration and Democratic Party during a Fox News town hall event Thursday night and picked a major upset in next month’s midterm elections.

The town hall, hosted by Sean Hannity, also included segments with DeSantis’ wife, Casey DeSantis, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL).

DeSantis said that he believes that the Republican Party is going to win numerous highly contested races for governorships and U.S. Senate seats across the country in just a couple of weeks. The red wave is so strong, DeSantis said, that Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) would win the gubernatorial race in deep-blue New York.

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“We have a situation where voters are responding to a failed administration,” DeSantis said. “There’s just no way to sugarcoat it. Things have gotten worse since Joe Biden was president, the inflation’s at a 40-year high, he’s waged war on American energy, he’s bungled the southern border like we’ve never seen before.”

“So on issue after issue, they’re failing. The Democrats are still in lockstep with him, they will not break with their extreme policies, and our candidates are offering a better vision,” he continued. “So I think we need to work hard over these next little less than two weeks, everybody needs to be going out to vote. But if we do our part, and we get all like-minded people, and not just Republicans, we get independents and some Democrats. If we all do that, I think this will be one of the best midterm elections of our lifetime.”

“We need to work hard over these next less than two weeks. Everybody needs to be going out to vote…

If we do our part, I think this will be one of the best midterm elections of our lifetime.” —@RonDeSantisFL 💯https://t.co/3kH5oJErO9 pic.twitter.com/OgudIHGYMz

— Team DeSantis 🐊 (@teamrondesantis) October 28, 2022

When asked how things deteriorated so quickly under the Biden administration, DeSantis said that he’s never seen it this bad before.

“The thing that strikes me about this is all those problems you said, are created and manufactured by Biden himself with his bad policy,” he said. “You know, there’s sometimes, there’s sometimes things happen with the economy. Sometimes energy prices go up because of global supply. He’s waging war on our own ability to produce. He’s begging [Venezuelan dictator Nikolas] Maduro, for energy. He’s going to the Saudis and begging. You know, the Saudis, they cut production and people said, ‘Oh, they’re doing politics against Biden.’ Yeah, I think they probably are. But he put himself in this position by making our country vulnerable to this.”

DeSantis later talked about the shape that his state is in after leading the country in net in-migration over the last couple of years, resulting in 800 to 1,100 people moving to the state per day.

“We’ve had more adjusted gross income move into this state since COVID than has ever moved into a state in our country’s history over a similar time period,” DeSantis said. “And I know a lot of people will ask, ‘Hey, if someone’s coming from a deep blue state, are they going to vote the same way to bring those policies here?’ Well, here’s the statistics. When I got elected governor close to 300,000 more registered Democrats in Florida than Republicans. That was four years ago. Today, we have 306,000 more registered Republicans under my watch.”

DeSantis said that it should not be hard for Republicans to win in the current political environment because “the left has gotten so off their rocker.”

“I mean, who releases criminals back on the street knowing they’re going to commit more crimes again?” DeSantis said. “What type of a prosecutor would say, ‘yeah, you can go ahead and steal $900 worth of merchandise, just don’t steal $1,000, and we’re not going to ever prosecute you’? You see, a lot of the cities have really gone into disrepute because of these really bad policies. So we’re just doing basic, common sense tried-and-true American principles.”