Let’s call them Bonnie and Clyde, a couple described to me by another broker who specializes in residential sales . (I am altering other relevant details to preserve the listing broker’s requirement of confidentiality.)
It seems they made a successful offer to purchase a two-bedroom Brooklyn co-op in the $600,000-$700,000 range, having furnished an outline of their finances, when June already was busting out all over. (The operative word here is “bust.”)
The funding was said to be coming from “Clyde,” who had obtained a mortgage commitment, and this couple maintained that they were looking forward to making the apartment their home after their wedding. Thus, they were applying to the board of directors to live in the apartment together.
So far, so good.
A week and a half after their offer was accepted, they produced their completed application, including tax returns, to the listing broker.
Have you guessed yet what the documents revealed? It seems that Bonnie and Clyde had filed their most recent two years’ tax returns as a married couple!
Which they weren’t.
That makes them criminals, and there is no way that the board ever would approve their application to become shareholders. Of course, said my distraught broker friend, the board won’t ever see the application.
He was torn with emotion when he recounted the situation to me.
First, especially because his seller already had experienced one board rejection and moved away, he felt terrible for him. Second, the experienced buyers’ broker had known about the complication since the offer had been accepted and had an obligation to disclose that fact. Third, the listing broker was incredulous and enraged that the high-flying young Wallstreeter had engaged in the deception.
It is hard to believe that, should the feds ever find out, Bonnie and Clyde will end up with a home they never expected to occupy: Prison. But that’s where they belong.
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Malcolm Carter
Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker
Senior Vice President
Charles Rutenberg Realty
127 E. 56th Street
New York, NY 10022
M: 347-886-0248
F: 347-438-3201
Malcolm@ServiceYouCanTrust.com
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I, on Cambodia 
what an odd story. why not just say from the beginning that they were married (even if they weren’t). I’m on a co-op board and one paper we DONT ask for is a marriage license. such a weird thing to lie about.
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I’m guessing they wanted to curry favor by sentimentalizing the prospect of their first home while forgetting the statement on their tax returns.
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