Saikat Chakrabarti, a progressive tech millionaire who is running to succeed Rep. Nancy Pelosi in Congress, has spent years claiming that a home in Maryland is his principal residence while actually living 2,800 miles away in San Francisco, The Standard has learned.
Records show that when Chakrabarti bought a $1.6 million house in Gaithersburg, Maryland, in 2018, he signed a deed promising to make it his principal residence. Over the next seven years, he continued to identify the 4,555-square-foot home — located in Crown, a retail- and transit-oriented development (opens in new tab) roughly 25 miles from Capitol Hill — as his principal residence in property tax filings.
In a phone interview with The Standard, Chakrabarti said he never intended to live in the Gaithersburg home and purchased it for his parents, who now reside in New Jersey. He said the deed, mortgage documents, and property tax filings he filed over the last seven years mistakenly identify it as his primary home.
“I visit my family, so, like, I’ve been there,” Chakrabarti said. “Probably the longest I was ever there was maybe a couple months at some point, but never lived there.”
According to multiple real estate experts, if Chakrabarti knew the filings were false, they could constitute fraud. Listing the home as a principal residence in loan documents and Maryland property filings could have given him special benefits, such as a lower interest rate or tax exemptions. Maryland law (opens in new tab) says it is a crime to knowingly make any “deliberate misstatement, misrepresentation, or omission” to influence the lending process, and penalties (opens in new tab) can include a fine up to $5,000 and/or imprisonment up to 10 years.
A property deed from January 2018 notes that the home would be used as Chakrabarti’s primary residence and required him to sign under penalty of perjury. Chakrabarti said he had trusted his attorneys and real-estate people and had simply signed the forms put in front of him.
“I can say it was an honest mistake,” Chakrabarti said. “And if there is any money I owe, I will of course pay it back.”
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In follow-up conversations, Chakrabarti said he was taking steps to correct the filings and he’s not sure if he received any financial benefit.
Zillow estimates that the home has appreciated by 55% since its purchase.
The reporting of false information in mortgage and property records has become a hot-button political issue, with President Donald Trump’s administration backing Justice Department investigations and referrals targeting Democratic figures like Sen. Adam Schiff, Rep. Eric Swalwell, and New York Attorney General Letitia James. All three have accused Trump of weaponizing the justice system against his political opponents.
Chakrabarti acknowledged that he’s had a circuitous path to becoming a political candidate, and he understands that his business dealings and personal holdings deserve scrutiny.
“I get it,” he said. “I wasn’t planning to run for office my entire life.”
The road back to San Francisco
Chakrabarti announced his candidacy in February, leaving many San Franciscans scratching their heads about a candidate who has left little mark since arriving in the city in 2009: Saikat who?
During the early 2010s, Chakrabarti — now 39 years old — was focused on hitting the tech lottery with his web design startup Mockingbird, while also working as one of the first engineers at digital payment company Stripe. He didn’t turn his focus to politics until 2015, when he began working on the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders. He went on to embed himself in the national progressive scene by cofounding the political action committees Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats.
Just weeks before taking over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign in February 2018 (and then becoming her chief of staff), he purchased the Gaithersburg home. Since that time — and even after declaring plans to challenge Pelosi, who announced this month that she will retire at the end of her term — Chakrabarti has called the home his principal residence in filings with the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation.
A spokesperson for the department confirmed that a person must live in a home at least seven months out of the year to call it a principal residence.
“That would be for the whole country,” officials wrote in an email. “Unless they are active duty military.”
Chakrabarti, who has never served in the military, said he did not apply for tax exemptions on the property. Beyond tax records, Charkabarti’s mortgage filings for the property could be more problematic.
In March 2018, he and his wife, attorney Kamilka Malwatte, signed an $800,000 loan agreement claiming the home would be used as a primary residence “for at least one year.” A second rider on the home changed the terms of this agreement for use as a second home. The language still required it to be for the “Borrower’s exclusive use,” but it’s unclear how that would apply to his parents as occupants.
Jonathan Layne, a real estate agent in Gaithersburg, noted that purchasing a principal residence has advantages when it comes to lenders.
“When you are applying for a loan, that interest rate is likely going to be higher for a second home or an investment property than if it’s your principal residence,” Layne said.
Erik Mebust, a spokesperson for state Sen. Scott Wiener, who is also running for the District 11 congressional seat, said Chakrabarti’s property records raise questions about how long he has lived in San Francisco after having “no involvement in the community” before becoming a candidate. So far, Chakrabarti has spent $720,000 of his own money on the campaign.
“Lots of people try to buy their way into elected office, but this is particularly brazen,” Mebust said in a statement. “San Franciscans deserve a representative in Congress who cares deeply about our city and shows it by going to the mat for our community.”
Chakrabarti, who lives in a two-bedroom apartment on Duboce Avenue that he owns, defended his time in the city, saying he has put down roots and frequently returned during his time working on campaigns elsewhere. (He also owns a one-bedroom apartment on Oak Street and an ADU.) Chakrabarti said he returned to San Francisco for good in 2019 to work full time at think tank New Consensus.
“I started a company when I first moved out here, I bought a home when I came out here, and I started a family out here,” Chakrabarti said. “I’ve lived the vast majority of my adult life here, so this is the city I call home. And it’s a city I would be proud to represent.”