Miami Beach investor Fred Karlton and his partner, Beneficial Funding Corp., secured an $8.7 million foreclosure judgment against the owner of an office building near Coconut Grove.
An auction to sell the 12-story tower at 3150 Southwest 38th Avenue is set for Dec. 9, court records and real estate database Vizzda show.
On Oct. 24, after a non-jury trial, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Thomas Rebull ruled in favor of Karlton and Miami Beach-based Beneficial Funding, capping a four-year legal battle against the property’s owner, JB Green, an entity managed by partners Jacques Berrebi in Belgium and William Holly in Miami.
Rebull found that Holly put up a bogus defense about the loan documents being fraudulent, and found his testimony not credible, the order states.
“I think Judge Rebull was very careful and thoughtful in his deliberation of the facts in the case,” Karlton told The Real Deal. “He was really engaged at trial. The ruling was correct.”
Leydi Wohlfeld, president of Beneficial Funding, said Holly’s false representations to her company and Karlton were brought to light during the trial.
“This was a four-and-a-half year battle in complex litigation that culminated with the truth thanks to Judge Rebull,” Wohlfield said via email. “The court found that the themes presented in this case appeared to show that [Hollyl] not only acted improperly but then attempted to conceal the details of his actions as well as conflicts of interests from [Berrebi].”
Carlos Lerman, the attorney representing JB Green, Berrebi and Holly, did not respond to a request for comment. The defendants have filed a notice of appeal, court records show.
JB Green paid $39.2 million for the office building, known as Miami Green, in 2016, records show. In January 2020, Karlton and Beneficial Funding provided a $5.7 million hard money loan to JB Green that the entity used to refinance a previous $3.5 million mortgage, Rebull’s order states.
Four months later, Karlton and Beneficial Funding sued JB Green for allegedly defaulting on the $5.7 million mortgage. The entity allegedly failed to make interest payments in February and March of 2020. The debt ballooned to $8.7 million including fees and accrued interest in the last four years, court filings show.
At trial and in its defense motions, JB Green alleged the mortgage was null and void because the loan documents were allegedly fraudulent and contained alleged forged signatures. However, based on witness testimony and other evidence at trial, Rebull determined that Holly’s claims under oath that he wasn’t involved with any of the JB Green loans were not credible.
Berrebi, JB Green’s majority owner, had delegated all management responsibilities to Holly, the minority owner. Holly then designated Christos Christidis, another business associate with no ownership stake in JB Green, to manage the office building. Christidis is also a defendant in the foreclosure case.
At trial, Christidis provided damaging testimony against Holly, who also took the stand in his defense, the order states. Rebull found Christidis was telling the truth, while Holly was lying about not having any role in obtaining the mortgages, including his denial about signing any loan documents, the order shows.
Nathan Clark, Christidis’ attorney, said Rebull ruled fairly and issued an “excellent opinion.”
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