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Fannie Mae sues for $60 million in defaulted mortgages tied to notorious Philadelphia landlord

Fannie Mae filed the lawsuit the same month Philip Pulley is expected to plead guilty to federal voter fraud charges.

Philip Pulley outside a courtroom in 2022 following lawsuits over the partial collapse of his Lindley Tower apartments in Philadelphia's Logan section.
Philip Pulley outside a courtroom in 2022 following lawsuits over the partial collapse of his Lindley Tower apartments in Philadelphia's Logan section.Read moreHadas Kuznits / KYW Newsradio

Philip C. Pulley’s legal and financial troubles keep piling up.

Days before Pulley was expected to plead guilty to federal charges of double voting in two elections, and while he’s still facing state-level charges for voter fraud in a third election, real estate companies affiliated with the notorious Philly-area landlord have been hit with a $60 million lawsuit over seven defaulted mortgages.

Fannie Mae, a government-controlled mortgage financier, filed a federal lawsuit Monday in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania alleging that Pulley-affiliated companies defaulted on the mortgages for properties in Philadelphia and Delaware County.

The lawsuit claims that the Pulley-affiliated real estate companies owe $59 million on loans that range from just over $6 million to nearly $14 million. The companies owe an additional $1.2 million in interest, which grows daily by roughly $6,600.

Pulley, who is the guarantor of the loans, took out the mortgages through a web of curiously named business entities — some with references to the devil.

For example, the $6.7 million mortgage for a Fern Rock property was secured in partnership with R3Rascals L.P., a company owned 98% by Pulley, 1% by DeVil Management Corp., and 1% by Pulley’s wife, Devra Pulley.

The nearly $14 million mortgage for an apartment building on Wissahickon Avenue was secured in partnership with My2Boys L.P., which is 99% owned by Pulley and 1% by Satan Management Corp. An Allens Lane property involves a partnership with Our2Girls L.P. and Lucifer Management Corp.

» READ MORE: Philadelphia landlord who was registered to vote in two states now faces a third voter fraud charge

Pulley did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did Fannie Mae.

Pulley, 62, who splits his time between a gated estate in Montgomery County called “Stonewall Manor” and a waterfront house in Lighthouse Point, Fla., has a reputation among tenants, ex-employees, and city lawyers as someone who runs his apartment complexes on the cheap.

Last year, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office filed a consumer-protection suit against Pulley and his companies, accusing them of “deplorable conduct” for managing buildings with substandard living conditions and retaliating against tenants who complain. That case is ongoing.

In an unusual twist, the law caught up with Pulley this summer for entirely unrelated reasons.

Last month, federal prosecutors charged him with election fraud, double voting, and falsely registering to vote. Pulley is accused of voting more than once in the 2020 and 2022 elections, using a fake Social Security number to register to vote in Philadelphia while already registered in Montgomery County and in Broward County, Fla. In 2022, he allegedly voted in both Philadelphia and Montgomery County.

(Pulley was expected to plead guilty in a Philadelphia federal courtroom Thursday, but the hearing was postponed to the end of the month.)

» READ MORE: Landlord in Mount Airy and North Philly fined tenants $5,000 for complaining about sewage and infestations, AG’s suit says

Two weeks after his federal indictment, the state Attorney General’s Office charged Pulley with voting in both Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties in the 2023 election.

A review of voting records by The Inquirer found that Pulley appears to have also double voted in the 2021 election. He has not been charged in connection with that election.

Pulley made the news in 2022 after his Lindley Tower apartments in North Philadelphia partially collapsed, and he has faced city lawyers more than 300 times over the last decade for code violations, unpaid taxes and utilities, and other issues related to his apartments. City officials are now seeking to demolish Lindley Tower.

In April, tenants rallied against him outside City Hall with a “Philip Pulley Slumlord Bully” sign. They were joined by Councilmember Nicholas O’Rourke, who described his behavior as “stone cold negligence.”

Last month, a Florida contractor who worked on a boat dock at Pulley’s Florida home sued Pulley and his wife in Broward County, alleging that they failed to pay a balance of $22,250 for the work.

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