Disgraced comedian Bill Cosby is looking to take a $30 million loan against his Upper East Side townhouse to pay for his mounting legal bills as he faces a retrial for sexual assault.
Cosby, 80, is trying to take the $30 million hard money loan on his 12,000-square-foot mansion as he hires a new legal team to represent him, “Page Six TV” revealed Wednesday.
He bought the six-story townhouse in 1987 for $6.2 million and reportedly spent another $1.2 million renovating it. Neighbors include Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO and chairman Howard Lutnick, and billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who spent 13 months in jail after pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl in 2008.
A source exclusively told Page Six, “Cosby is looking for a $30 million hard money loan against the house. Which means Cosby must be desperate because the banks won’t give him money. Hard money loans have high interest rates and are usually repaid in a short time, such as a year.
“But the lenders aren’t keen to give Cosby the money because they don’t think he has enough equity. Also, the lenders believe if they foreclose on the house, that they may not sell it. Provenance and the history of a house is very important, and buyers would certainly be put off by the thought of what could have taken place in the house over the years, and that they’ll be sleeping in Cosby’s bedroom.”
Now, he has just hired famed Michael Jackson defense lawyer and frequent television legal expert Tom Mesereau. Cosby’s new defense team also includes ex-federal prosecutor Kathleen Bliss and Philadelphia’s Samuel W. Silver.
Cosby has been accused of sexual assault by more than 50 women. His first trial ended with a hung jury, and he now faces a retrial next spring.
Mesereau didn’t return calls and emails, and Silver and Bliss didn’t immediately get back to us.
Cosby’s rep called Page Six and said in a confusing statement, “Consider the source,” and then hung up.