A former executive with a Manhattan title policy firm admitted yesterday in Manhattan federal court that he and a co-conspirator sought to steal $6 million through a scheme that included raiding escrow accounts that were intended to pay off mortgages and taxes, authorities said.

Eric Koppelman, an officer with Aegis America, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, according to the office of the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan.

Co-conspirator Irshad Ramzan, a principal and loan officer at mortgage brokerage Platinum Funding in South Ozone Park, pleaded guilty in federal court in August 2009 to the same conspiracy charge. TRD [more]

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A fund that won a $3.9 million judgment in September against embattled developer Kent Swig is seeking to enforce its priority claim on certain of Swig’s assets, and prevent competing creditors who are owed a total of nearly $50 million from getting to them first.

The fund, affiliated with Midtown-based investment firm RCG Longview, sued Swig as an individual, as well as five of his creditors, to force a turnover of eight assets to repay a $3.9 million debt, a petition filed Jan. 7 in New York State Supreme Court says. In the same filing, the fund alternately asked the court to turn the assets over to a sheriff or put them in the hands of a receiver.

But a main goal of the suit was to make sure the other five creditors did not get their hands on the assets before the fund named RCG LV Debt IV Non-REIT Asset Holdings, did. The attached chart includes lenders and other creditors who have won court judgments against him. [more]

One Madison Park faces legal trouble including a suit by former Yankees/Nets Chairman Harvey Schiller

The developers at One Madison Park are facing millions of dollars in additional lawsuits for alleged loan defaults and refusing to release down payments to buyers as well as a judgment for unpaid rent at the property’s off-site sales office.

In November, former Yankees/Nets Chairman Harvey Schiller and his wife Marcia filed a $1.5 million fraud suit in New York State Supreme Court against the developers, Ira Shapiro and Marc Jacobs’ (not the designer) who operate under the name New City, N.Y.-based Slazer Enterprises, alleging they collected multiple deposits on the same apartment to keep in good standing with lenders.

The couple alleges that it signed an agreement in July 2007 to buy apartments 45A and 45B in the building for $7.15 million, and put a 10 percent deposit into an escrow account controlled by the law firm Goldberg Weprin Finkel Goldstein.

They claim that in January 2009, the developers got another party to bid on the apartment and promised to refund the Schiller’s deposit and pay them $850,000 to terminate the contract. Additionally, they allege the sponsor took a deposit on the apartment from the new purchaser, but refused to refund the money. [more]

Ogilvy is a tenant in 636 11th Avenue (Building photo source: PropertyShark)

The much-heralded plan announced two years ago by international advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather to move from Worldwide Plaza to a former candy manufacturing plant at 636 11th Avenue has hit a rough patch, with the new landlord allegedly moving toward kicking the company out. Ogilvy Group, a subsidiary of Dublin-based WPP Group, claims that 636 11th Avenue building owner Hakimian Organization is threatening to terminate the $600 million, 20-year lease, so the ad agency sued the ownership entity Plaza West Associates to block any eviction moves. Ogilvy Group claims in the lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court Jan. 5 that Hakimian has not completed parts of agreed-to tenant improvements, leading the ad firm to claim the landlord owes as much as $50 million in rent abatements and other damages. The ad firm alleges in the court papers that after it sought binding arbitration in October to resolve the dispute, Hakimian sent a notice Dec. 9 giving the agency until this Thursday to cure five alleged non-monetary defaults or the landlord would move to terminate the lease, but Ogilvy says it is not in default. [more]

From left: Heritage on Fifth, 420 East 102nd Street, 1890-1894 Lexington Avenue, and 1982-1990 Lexington Avenue (Photo source for last three images: Property Shark)

One of the largest operators of affordable multi-family housing in Upper Manhattan and the boroughs is suing the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development for at least $4 million for lost income tied to deferred rent increases in subsidized housing vouchers at three apartment complexes in East Harlem. New Jersey-based Urban American Management, through its affiliate Putnam Holding, claims that the city agency breached a contract by delaying approval of rent increases for a special class of Section 8 subsidized housing vouchers in the three complexes. In addition, the petition filed in New York State Supreme Court Monday claims HPD bowed to pressure from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and revoked approved rent increases that were between 3 and 23 percent to the apartments with tenants holding enhanced Section 8 vouchers at the three complexes. [more]

30 Lincoln Plaza and Howard Milstein

A group of tenants at Milstein family condominium conversion 30 Lincoln Plaza has filed a lawsuit against the sponsor and the attorney general, claiming a “fire sale” of units in the building resulted in an “egregious miscarriage of justice” against tenants. Facing a December 2008 deadline for the offering plan to be declared effective, Milstein slashed prices for non-tenants, selling units for 40 to 60 percent less than the prices tenants had paid, according to the suit, filed Dec. 21 in New York State Supreme Court. The suit, which reveals the “vastly reduced prices” of units in the building (see accompanying chart after the jump), offers a glimpse into the challenges faced by developers after the financial crisis of 2008. The suit claims that the condo offering plan “unlawfully discriminated” against tenants and failed to adequately disclose certain material risk factors, and that declaring the plan effective was “erroneous” and “an abuse of the attorney general’s discretion.” In the suit, tenants asked that the attorney general rescind the approval of the amendment that declared the plan effective. The suit was filed by tenants Vera Salnikova and Scott Petepiece, and an unspecified number of members of the 30 Lincoln Plaza Ad Hoc Tenants Committee. [more]

After a seven-day trial, the New York State Supreme Court has ruled
that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority must pay the Riese
Organization $35.2 million for 194 Broadway, a property that the MTA
took through eminent domain for the development of the Fulton Street
Transit Center. The MTA had valued the property for less, according to
a press release from Rosenberg & Estis, the law firm representing
the Riese Organization. The MTA also has to pay $106.5 million total
for 204-210 Broadway, 198 Broadway and 192 Broadway, all owned by the
Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the City of New York, and 200
Broadway, owned by Brookfield Properties. The MTA acquired all of these
properties for the Fulton Street Transit Center in 2006. TRD [more]

A court complaint filed yesterday accuses Princess Firyal of Jordan, companion of financier Lionel Pincus, of impeding the sale of Pincus’ 7,000-square-foot duplex at the Pierre Hotel at East 61st Street. Pincus’ sons, Matthew and Henry, who filed the papers in New York State Supreme Court, say they want to sell the apartment partly because the upkeep is so expensive. The proceeds of the sale are to go to charity unless Pincus dies before it is sold, in which case it would go to Princess Firyal. She has argued in past court filings that Pincus bought the apartments for them to live in together, giving her a right to the property even though they have never lived there together. The property is available now as one or two units. The asking price last year was $50 million. Pincus’ sons were reportedly close to selling one of the two units for $18 million earlier this year, but the deal fell through. [NYT] and [NYO] [more]

A State Supreme Court judge has thrown out a lawsuit in which Donald
Trump accused his former lawyers, Morrison Cohen and David Scharf, of
“rank commercialization” of Trump’s reputation because they used
Trump’s name on their Web site. Trump, who filed the suit last August,
argued that the use of his name was advertising without his consent.
The firm represented Trump Briarcliff Manor Development against a
contractor Trump said had overcharged for work on the Trump National
Golf Club. But Judge Eileen Bransten dismissed Trump’s complaint. Trump
told the New York Post the case settled last week and that he is very
happy with it. [more]

Gary Barnett sues real estate heir who is partial owner of 734 Broadway

Extell Development president Gary Barnett accuses an heir to a modest
Noho and Brooklyn real estate portfolio of breach of contract, unjust
enrichment and other charges and is seeking $790,000 in a lawsuit filed
this month. The filing by the developer of such luxury projects such as the
Rushmore at 80 Riverside Boulevard and 995 Fifth Avenue at 81st Street,
charges that Mordechai Muschel, who was a member of a partnership that
borrowed $5 million from another of Barnett’s companies, Intell
Management and Investment, now owes the developer at least $790,000,
but the two-paragraph filing does not explain why. The brief suit filed June 12 in New York State Supreme Court, known as
a summons with notice, lists Barnett alone as plaintiff, and Muschel as
the sole defendant. [more]