In response to reports that police consider him a murder suspect, Israel Perlmutter – business partner to slain Brooklyn landlord Menachem Stark – said he is “angered and distraught by such a baseless allegation.”
“Mr. Perlmutter is outraged at any insinuation that he had anything to do with this unthinkable violent act against a dear friend and partner,” said his attorney, Henry Mazurek of Clayman & Rosenberg.
Police investigators are closely watching Perlmutter’s activities because they believe he has been lying to them about Stark and has been using a Russian businessman as a scapegoat, a police source told the New York Daily News, as previously reported.
Perlmutter helped the police find surveillance footage that shows Stark’s abduction, Mazurek told the Algemeiner Journal, a Jewish newspaper. Stark was abducted from outside his Williamsburg office Thursday night, and his charred body was discovered in a Great Neck dumpster the next day.
Members of the real estate community have illustrated a complex image of the late developer. [Algemeiner Journal] — Mark Maurer