The Shocking Tale of a NoHo Nightmare Tenant Who Scammed Across the Globe
A seemingly prestigious architect turned out to be a scammer who owed hundreds of thousands of dollars around the world. Here’s how his latest scheme unraveled.
When Suzanne Seggerman received Han Lo’s application to be a tenant in her Bond Street artist's loft, he seemed just right. His LinkedIn profile boasted a bachelor's degree from Harvard, as well as graduate degrees from prestigious school in Europe. Seggerman's space is housed in a co-op building, which means new tenants need to pass the co-op board, and it's notoriously not easy. Lo, on the other hand, had no trouble there. But a nightmare situation came soon enough.
Bond Street, located in Downtown Manhattan's NoHo neighborhood, embodies one of New York City's tales of transformation. What was 20th-century "danger zone" transformed into a 21st-century cultural haven, boasting galleries, shopping, and fine dining. Seggerman bought the city-mandated "Artist in Residence" loft in 1993, one of the neighborhood's less popular epochs. She now rents it to tenants as well as creatives looking to shoot campaigns, films, and more. Seggerman said it's her "luckiest business decision and my only retirement fund," according to the original Curbed story.
Lo seemed just like any other tenant until she received an email from the building manager, notifying her that the 38-year-old "architect" had been "been doing demolition" at her loft. Seggerman and her husband immediately headed towards the loft after reading that email. The couple was greeted with piles of debris on the street, including drywall chunks, broken doors, and parts of their daughter's old room, built by artist Neville Wakefield. A saga began.
Seggerman phoned her architect friend Zhenya Merkulova to join them, and she arrived on the scene shortly after. Together, the trio headed upstairs to the unit, where Lo’s partner eventually let them in. The interiors were torn apart in mayhem. But an altercation was ahead: After scanning and photographing what had become of her apartment, Seggerman turned to find Han Lo towering over her by the door.
"Han is blocking the exit, standing with his hands on his hips, like a big fat X. I realize I am alone with him, as Mike has run downstairs to fetch his phone and Zhenya is outside, her leather jacket caught between door and frame," Seggerman wrote in the original story. He eerily uttered, “So now you want to leave?”
Though Seggerman safely exited the apartment, she found Merkulova with injuries that she explained were from Lo attacking her. 911 got their call. The police came and spoke to all parties, but ultimately that was it. They notified everyone this was an issue for housing court, and there were no charges pressed that evening.
Soon after, Seggerman and her husband did some more digging online and uncovered that Lo actually had a criminal record tracing him back to issues of a similar nature. From refusing to pay a $13,000 bill at the New York Edition Hotel to a court record highlighting $53,647 in outstanding bills, Lo had a track record of being a nightmare tenant. (Lo even posted a photo on his Instagram account of a poster with this phrase.)
Seggerman, her husband and another one of Lo’s victims, Justin Bradburn took charge of investigating Lo’s track record in further detail. They found he owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to at least a dozen others from Tokyo to Los Angeles and London. Read the full story recounted by Seggerman herself to find what happens next, originally published in New York Magazine’s Curbed.
