Exclusive | Zohran Mamdani’s rent-stabilized NYC apartment could face ethics watchdog probe

The state ethics watchdog agency has received a complaint urging a probe into how Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani obtained his rent-stabilized apartment and whether he complied with gift rules for elected officials.

“Questions have been raised in public discussion about the timeline of his tenancy in relation to when New York State ethics rules apply to elected officials,” Jason Soren, an economist with the free-market American Institute for Economic Research, said in an August 12 letter to the state Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government.

Mamdani has said he was a tenant in his $2,300, one-bedroom pad in Astoria, Queens, before he was elected to the state Assembly in 2020, and didn’t know it was rent-stabilized at the time.

But Soren said he was skeptical that Mamdani — the Democratic socialist front-runner to win the mayoralty — was not versed in the state’s rent regulation laws, considering he once worked as a foreclosure prevention specialist helping tenants fight off evictions.

“Mr. Mamdani has stated that he began living in the apartment before his election to public office and that he was unaware of its rent-stabilized status at the time,” Soren said.

“If at the start of Mr. Mamdani’s tenancy, the relevant ethics regulations were applicable to him, then it could be appropriate to investigate whether any assistance he may have received in securing a rent-stabilized apartment qualified as a gift under the law.”

New York elected officials are generally prohibited from soliciting or accepting gifts of more than “nominal value” from individuals and entities that do business with the state. The average rent for a market-rate one-bedroom apartment is about $3,000.

Soren said an ethics agency review of the state’s gift regulations as they pertain to Mamdani could “provide clarity and address the questions that have been raised.”

“It is critical to the maintenance of the public’s trust, and to the confidence of Assemblyman Mamdani’s constituents in Assembly District 36, that these questions are answered definitively and thoroughly,” Soren said.

Mamdani’s rent-regulated apartment has come under scrutiny after a rival for the mayoralty, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, raised it as an issue.

Cuomo claimed Mamdani abused the rent-regulated system because he’s from a wealthy family and should not occupy an apartment that should go to someone else who is not well-off.

The former governor, who is running as an independent in the November election, even proposed “Zohran’s Law” to impose a means test to qualify for a rent-stabilized apartment.

The Mamdani campaign dismissed the complaint as nonsense and said he moved into the apartment when he was making $47,000.

“Right-wing think tanks and MAGA billionaires’ pathetic attempts to distract from Zohran Mamdani’s mission to make NYC more affordable will fail, just as they did in the primary where New Yorkers resoundingly rejected Andrew Cuomo in a humiliating defeat,” said Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec.

The ethics commission confirmed that it has received Soren’s complaint, but said the law bars it from publicly commenting on the existence of any investigative matter or whether it will open a probe.

Mamdani — the son of filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani — has vowed to push the city rent guidelines control board to freeze the rent of nearly 1 million government-regulated apartments, if elected mayor.