An NYC councilwoman operating for Congress owes $25,000 in again lease after squatting for 5 months in a luxurious high-rise, based on her ex-landlord and court docket paperwork.
Councilwoman Julie Gained (D-Queens) and her household vacated a one-bedroom apartment at swanky Skyline Towers on Lengthy Island Metropolis’s waterfront on Monday — three days after being slapped with eviction papers by the apartment’s proprietor, Justin Chae, a high NYC political advisor and former household buddy.
The gleaming-glass, 67-story skyscraper features a health heart with a swimming pool, a sauna and spa, a yoga room, and different A-list facilities.
Nevertheless, Gained insisted to The Publish that she and her political strategist husband Eugene Noh by no means signed any lease on the posh pad, claiming Chae cast her title onto a bogus lease settlement.
Chae, whose unit is valued at almost $1 million, stated he agreed to let the facility couple and their two younger youngsters transfer in rent-free in November 2024, below a one-year lease that he shared with The Publish.
He provided the free lease as a bonus to Noh, a fellow Korean-American, for agreeing to work as vp of campaigns at Chae’s firm, Legion Outreach Consultants. Their households have recognized one another because the Nineteen Eighties, Chae stated.
The enterprise relationship by no means labored out, and Noh’s employment was terminated on June 26, based on the petition Chae filed in Queens Housing Courtroom.
Chae advised The Publish he agreed to let the household reside there rent-free till the tip of 2025 after which cost $5,000 month-to-month lease in the event that they wished to remain.
Nevertheless, the couple by no means paid a cent and began “ghosting” Chae in April by ignoring calls and different messages, the owner claims.
Chae stated he plans to file extra court docket papers in search of $25,000 owed in lease for the primary 5 months of the yr. There’s a listening to on the case scheduled for June 30.
“Chae can’t consider his pals would reap the benefits of him this manner,” stated his spokesman, longtime Democratic advisor Hank Sheinkopf.
Gained, nonetheless, accused Chae of “politically extorting her” whereas she’s operating for increased workplace and predicted the lease settlement he offered to The Publish won’t ever maintain up in court docket. She additionally threatened to countersue him over a “clearly political smear job.”
“This can be a gross misrepresentation of actuality however sadly 1000’s of households face the identical type of intimidation and abuse by landlords throughout town,” she stated. “I look ahead to setting the file straight in court docket particularly since there’s no executed lease — nor has there been a service of a predicate discover as required by legislation.”
Nevertheless, Gained failed to deal with an Oct. 17, 2024 e-mail change between Chae and Noh offered to The Publish that reveals her husband saying he “signed” the lease — and whether or not it’s doable he additionally signed her title, too. The couple additionally didn’t handle allegations that they by no means paid lease.
Gained, who’s operating in a crowded discipline within the June 23 Democratic major to exchange retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez in New York’s seventh Congressional District (overlaying elements of Queens and Brooklyn), claimed in a Could 26 interview printed by The New York Editorial Board that she and her husband at present pay “over $4,000” month-to-month for lease.
She didn’t point out her ongoing landlord-tenant dispute however stated she moved to LIC “the place it’s extraordinarily costly” as a result of “Council safety” prompt she enroll her “youngsters in a college the place there’s extra Asian youngsters, in order that they will mix in additional.”
Gained — who represents LIC, Sunnyside and different elements of Western Queens — earns $148,500 yearly.
Noh reportedly deliberate to purchase out elements of Chae’s consulting enterprise final yr, however Chae stated they by no means agreed to a deal.
Noh now operates his personal political consulting enterprise comparable in title to Chae’s — referred to as Legion Consulting. It’s earned $268,696 in metropolis, state and federal marketing campaign work since August, based on data.
Noh’s greatest shopper since breaking off from Chae is ex-Mayor Eric Adams. He racked up $104,735 in funds working as Adams’ contracted marketing campaign supervisor through the Democratic ex-mayor’s failed 2025 re-election bid as an impartial.
Gained, a member of the Council’s Progressive Caucus, endorsed now-Mayor Zohran Mamdani in final yr’s Democratic major.
The couple claimed to QNS.com in July that they have been unfairly focused by “sexist” and “misogynistic” media scrutiny of their relationship as a result of they backed totally different mayoral candidates.
Velázquez has endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to succeed her, whereas Mamdani is backing fellow socialist and state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez (D-Queens).
