Alleged fraud stalls Chetrit Group’s Garment District foreclosure

Chetrit Group’s Isaac Chetrit was defrauded out of ownership of a mortgage he bought on a Garment District office building, his attorney alleges.

Real Estate Weekly reported that when Isaac Chetrit purchased the distressed mortgage on a 60,000-square-foot office building at 315 West 35th Street for $10.75 million last year, he meant to file the transaction under an LLC called Mazel West 35. Instead, it was incorrectly recorded as Mazal 315 W35 LLC.

Chetrit’s initial attempts to foreclose on the owner, Aaron Chetrik, who planned a condominium conversion, were delayed by the spelling mistake which was eventually corrected. Then, during the foreclosure case, a lawyer claimed that the misspelled entity, Mazal 315 W35, was a legitimate company and the rightful owner of the mortgage.

Chetrit’s lawyer, Stephen Meister, a principal at Meister Seelig & Fein, claims someone printed out the erroneous documents from the city’s online public records, added Yoseph Levin as the owner’s name and resubmitted them to the state — essentially, defrauding Chetrit. Some speculate it was all an effort by the initial owner, Aaron Chetrik, to stall the foreclosure. [REW]