A Florida man who dubbed himself the “Wolf of Airbnb” was sentenced to more than four years in jail on Monday after unlawfully subletting over eighteen Manhattan residences, earning over $1 million in rental revenue while refusing to pay rent himself.
Between July 2019 and April 2022, Konrad Bicher ingeniously exploited New York City’s tenant protection laws, which were designed to protect renters during the pandemic. Bicher leased more than a dozen apartments and then sublet them through Airbnb and other platforms, turning them into his personal profit machines. Landlords, entangled in legal restrictions and the chaos of COVID-19, found themselves unable to evict him. This scheme not only made him a fortune but also left a trail of financial devastation in its wake.
Bicher’s boldness was as unrestrained as his schemes. Text messages, later used as evidence, revealed his chilling intent and ruthless tactics. “Now bro I will become evil,” he texted a partner in April 2020, amidst the pandemic’s peak. He brazenly declared his plans to “rape every single landlord in NYC” and ominously stated, “Every landlord now is gonna be f—–ddddd.” This brazen confidence, coupled with a lavish lifestyle, reinforced his self-given title of “wolf,” drawing a direct line to the infamous Jordan Belfort of “Wolf of Wall Street” fame.
Despite his public displays of affluence—boasting private jet rides and exotic vacations on social media—Bicher’s life was a paradox of glamour and debt. While presenting an image of wealth, he owed Manhattan landlords hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid rent. Adding to his list of crimes, he defrauded the US government of $565,000 in COVID-19 relief funds. His deceitful acts eventually caught up with him, leading to a day in court he could not evade.
In a Manhattan federal court, Bicher faced Judge Lorna G. Schofield, who handed down a 51-month prison sentence. Along with the prison time, he was ordered to forfeit over $1.7 million and pay more than $2.2 million in restitution.
Bicher’s criminal history is not without precedent. A 2015 conviction for impersonating a landlord to fraudulently collect rent highlights a consistent pattern of deceit. His attorney’s pleas for leniency—citing his role as a father to a six-month-old daughter and husband to a stay-at-home wife—failed to sway the court.
