Gottlieb heir squandered $3.5M fortune: lawsuit

Charity claims family trust was spent on cars, hotels

The W New York hotel in Union Square (credit: Daytonian in Manhattan)
The W New York hotel in Union Square (credit: Daytonian in Manhattan)

An heir to the late real estate investor William Gottlieb’s fortune allegedly blew millions of dollars meant to go to charity on a spending spree that included luxury cars and hotels.

The United Jewish Appeal has claimed in a Manhattan Surrogate’s Court filing that it was supposed to receive the remainder of a trust set up by Gottlieb, who died in 1999. But it was Gottlieb’s late sister’s husband, Irving Bender, who eventually became the beneficiary of the trust, according to the New York Post.

Bender allegedly squandered $3.5 million meant for the charity on a spending spree that included luxury cars, rooms at the W Hotel in Union Square and a five-month stay at the Boca Raton Resort & Club in Florida.

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Gottlieb owned an estimated $1 billion in properties in Greenwich Village, Chelsea and Lower Manhattan upon his death.

William Gottlieb Real Estate are Aurora Capital Associates are currently helming the redevelopment of former home of Pastis in the Meatpacking District. A construction worker was killed on the site Monday, as previously reported. [NYP] – Rey Mashayekhi