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Two real-estate con artists made hundreds of thousands of dollars by renting homes in the Hamptons and using them as post-prom and graduation-party crash pads for raucous teens, authorities said.
Officials and outraged homeowners said the front man, 25-year-old Lee Hnetinka, of Jericho, would rent the mansions saying he intended to use them for his own family reunions.
“He said it was his aunt having a party at his house,” said Lucy Sachs, 64, who rented her family’s East Hampton home to Hnetinka for $30,000 a month.
When a neighbor called on June 8 to tell her that a “party bus with a disco ball had arrived” at Sachs’ place in the middle of the night, she rushed over, confused.
What Sachs found was a houseful of nearly 100 teens smoking and drinking in the century-old building.
Hnetinka allegedly teamed up with Leslie Jennemann (both inset), a Hamptons real-estate agent who in 2002 was convicted of running over and killing a migrant potato picker on her way home from a party, Southampton officials said.
“Ms. Jennemann is in business with Mr. Hnetinka,” said Southampton Town Attorney Tiffany Scarlato.
The suspects charged students $355 each for three days at the house, homeowners said.
Scarlato estimated that the pair brought in $60,000 to $80,000 a weekend and had as many as 10 rentals.
Another East Hampton homeowner, Eli Braha, rented to Hnetinka and became suspicious after a landscaper called to ask about all the trash and as many as 30 inflatable beds in the home.
“Everything in the lease precludes him from doing exactly what he did,” Braha said, adding that the kids did $10,000 in damage.
Jennemann and Hnetinka each face multiple code violations for not having proper rental permits, and Hnetinka has been sued by multiple homeowners.
Both declined to comment yesterday.