Former Deutsche Bank exec has defaulted on $3M loan, lawsuit says

Former Deutsche Bank executive Jerry Rotonda, who launched a development firm with Rotem Rosen two years ago, owes City National Bank more than $3 million, according to a recently filed lawsuit.

The bank loaned Rotonda the money in March 2016, and he promised to pay them $3 million plus interest by April 30 of this year, the lawsuit claims. However, he still has not done so and is thus in default of the loan, according to court papers.

Rotonda has only made about $360,000 worth of interest payments on the loan and has not made any payments since April 16, according to the suit. He still owes the bank approximately $3.1 million, and interest is continuing to accrue at a rate of $883.56 per day, the lawsuit says.

City National Bank did not respond to a request for comment, and Rotonda could not be reached.

Rotonda previously served as Chief Financial Officer of Deutsche Bank’s private wealth management business in the Americas. He then launched the real estate firm MRR Development in 2017 with Rotem Rosen and Indian billionaire Anand Mahindra, but Rosen bought out his stake soon after and named former ASRR CEO Danny Avidan as MRR’s CFO.

Rotonda’s LinkedIn page still lists him as a co-founder and partner at MRR.

MRR focuses on repositioning or developing hotel, residential and office properties in Manhattan. The firm bought the Lower East Side’s Hotel Indigo for $162.5 million in October, and earlier this year picked up a development site near Billionaires’ Row for more than $100 million.