ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A local real estate broker told 9 Investigates that he works hard to help low-income families become homeowners.
But now Channel 9 anchor Nancy Alvarez found out he is at the center of a discrimination complaint accusing him of targeting certain groups so he can make money.
Action 9 first looked into claims about Alexander Barhatkov in 2011.
More recently, Alvarez started looking into the latest client who had a problem with him and found out why his practices could soon be under investigation.
Single mom Su-lyn Sekki lives with the fear of losing her home at any moment.
“My nerves,” she told Alvarez.
She asked Alexander Barhatkov for more time to come up with the $78,000 she needed to buy the home for good after she spent three years renting it from him.
What he did instead, she said, was offer her a new contract with a new and much higher price.
“He sent me a nasty letter calling me stupid and that it would be my doom if I don't sign,” Sekki told Alvarez
It’s something Alicia Magazu called, “completely ridiculous.”
Magazu is the Fair Housing Program Manager for Community Legal Services of Mid Florida.
She has now filed a complaint against Barhatkov with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, accusing him of targeting low income, Hispanic families with questionable contracts. And she says with the influx of Puerto Ricans moving to Central Florida from the island, more people could become victims.
“Especially ones that don't speak English and aren’t familiar with American business practices,” Magazu said, “they're very easily misled.”
During a recent interview with Barhatkov, Alvarez asked him, “Do you target specific people with your real estate deals?”
“Ma'am I do not,” he responded
Barhatkov told Alvarez that Sue Lynn's price went up as a penalty for breaking the first contract.
When we told him her lawyers are questioning his ethics, he said: “Ethics and morals is very different for an individual that's uneducated versus an educated one.”
Barhatkov acknowledged he's been involved in at least 200 evictions in multiple counties during the last 10 years, but he says it's only because he deals with so many low income families. And he insisted in most cases, he helps them. He told us Sue Lynn only has herself to blame for her pending eviction.
“It all comes down to who are the pros and who are the joes!” Barhatkov told Alvarez.
“I feel horrible, I feel it's not fair,” Sue Lynn told Alvarez. “They're feeding on dreams...on people's dreams.”
Responding to the complaint, Barhatkov's attorney, Mark Lippman, said his client has never discriminated against anyone and "will defend this and any other claim by ms. Sekki to the full extent of the law."
Here’s more of Lippman’s statement:
“It is very disconcerting to hear that there is a HUD complaint by Ms. Sekki, and it is my client’s position that he will defend this and any other claim by Ms. Sekki to the full extent of the law. To be clear my client has never discriminated against any party at any time and any suggestion by Ms. Sekki that states this is nothing more than an angry, disgruntled person who could not perform on her contract and has instead chosen to blame my client for her financial failures.”
WFTV
