People v. Gilbert Gottlieb & 220 Crescent, Inc.

By a divided court, the Appellate Division has affirmed defendants’ convictions of the crime of offering a false instrument for filing, in the first degree, in violation of section 175.35 of the Penal Law. The writing or instrument involved is an "Application For Certificate of Occupancy” which was submitted to the Building Department of the City of Yonkers in connection with an apartment complex.

In the context in which this case reaches us and for the purposes of this appeal, we may assume that the application contained false information and, thus, we then approach the basic and sole issue,…