OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
9:53 AM – Thursday, October 16, 2025
New York Attorney General (AG) Letitia James has been indicted on allegations that she secured a favorable mortgage loan by misrepresenting the use of a Virginia home to house a “fugitive” relative.
James purchased a three-bedroom home in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2020, which is listed in the real estate section of her 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 disclosures to the New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government as an “investment,” valued between $100,000 to under $150,000.
In her 2024 disclosure, however, James listed it as “real property,” not an “investment.”
Though the 2024 document was filed in May, a month earlier, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director William Pulte sent a criminal referral to the U.S. Department of Justice alleging that James had “falsified records” to obtain home loans in Virginia.
Federal prosecutors claim that James misrepresented her use of the property when she first obtained a $109,800 mortgage loan to purchase the $137,000 home in 2020.
According to the indictment, the AG agreed to a “Second Home Rider,” a document that enumerates that the borrower must use the property as a second home for personal use, not as a primary residence or rental property.
“Despite these representations,” prosecutors wrote, the Norfolk property “was not occupied or used by James as a secondary residence and was instead used as a rental investment property.”
Because of the miscommunication of the property’s primary use, James was able to qualify for a mortgage rate that would not have been available if she had specified that she planned to use the home as a rental, according to the Justice Department.
Her “ill-gotten gains” from the lower mortgage rate amounted to “approximately $18,933 over the life of the loan,” prosecutors said.
James also mislabeled her use of the property on a homeowner’s insurance application, indicating that the house would be “owner-occupied.” According to the indictment, however, her federal tax forms indicate the home was treated as “rental real estate,” seeing as the AG reported “thousand(s) of dollars in rents received” and “claiming deductions for expenses relating to the property.”
James is charged with bank fraud and making false claims to a financial institution. If convicted for both counts, she faces up to 60 years in prison and a fine of up to $2 million. She is expected to make her first appearance in federal court in Virginia on October 24th.
The Virginia property has been the home of James’ grandniece Nakia Thompson since 2020.
Thompson, 36, is wanted for “absconding” from North Carolina after failing to complete her parole terms after an arrest in 2011. At the time, she was charged with malicious conduct by a prisoner, which is a felony. She was also charged with assault of a government official and resisting a public officer, according to court records.
Since moving to Virginia, Thompson has been repeatedly arrested. Her charges in the Old Dominion state include possession of burglary tools, grand larceny, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor — a child abuse charge.
In 2020, the attorney general’s relative was ordered to pay $2,020 in fees after she pleaded guilty to petit and grand larceny charges. She was given two years’ probation.
Additionally, Thompson had some misdemeanor charges dropped, as well as the felony possession of burglary tools.
As recently as this summer, she had nine vehicle-related offenses, as well. In July, Thompson was given four citations in one day, including driving 85 mph in a 55 mph area and improperly stopping her vehicle on a highway. She got the same speeding ticket the year prior, for which she was found guilty and fined $50. This traffic citation also led to her receiving a summons for improper child restraint.
The mortgage document dated August 17, 2020, explicitly prohibits any “shared ownership arrangement” at the Virginia home owned by the attorney general, mandating that James maintain “exclusive control” over the property.
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