In 2018, real estate broker Alexander Goldstein was working with a buyer in Golden Beach. Goldstein spent over a year looking for properties for his client, submitting an offer on one property that was rejected, and then negotiating a deal on another, a modest waterfront home on the market for $2.9 million.
Goldstein continued to negotiate, until his client, Reuben Ezekiel, said he and his partner were no longer interested in the house at 313 Center Island Drive. But Ezekiel ended up buying the home for $2.8 million, and gave his sister the commission.
Goldstein sued over being cut out of the deal, beginning a six-year journey that ended last week when a jury ruled in favor of Goldstein. The jury found Ezekiel liable for fraud, tortious interference, conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to interfere in a business relationship, deciding to award Goldstein with a whopping $47.8 million in damages, including punitive and compensatory damages. The final judgment has yet to be issued.
Civil courts can award extra financial penalties, or punitive damages, on a defendant whose conduct was particularly harmful, malicious or reckless.
The verdict was meant to send a message discouraging Ezekiel’s behavior, said Goldstein’s attorney, Josef Timlichman of Josef Timlichman Law. Ezekiel, Timlichman said, exploited his relationship with Goldstein and used his sister as a straw broker.
“If all Reuben [Ezekiel] and his partners had to do was give back $84,000, what’s to stop him from doing it again?” Timlichman said. “This isn’t the behavior we want to accept in our society.”
Ezekiel’s attorney, Pete Solnick, called the jury’s verdict “so excessive that it shocks the conscience of the court.”
Solnick said he is optimistic the court will throw out the verdict and order a new trial as to the damages.
Ezekiel even went on “Help Me Howard,” a consumer investigative segment on Channel 7, for help in 2021.
“It’s not fair, but I’m going to end up countersuing him, and he’s going to end up paying all the attorney fees anyway. He will pay the fees at the end,” Ezekiel said.
Host and former public defender Howard Finkelstein said it would be a tough road ahead for Goldstein
“The realtor would be out of luck unless he can prove he found the house, introduced the buyer and seller, and then negotiated the deal,” Finkelstein said in 2021.
While it was a tough road, Goldstein, a top broker in Golden Beach, ended up winning.
The lawsuit
Goldstein’s firm alleged that he was hired by Ezekiel and his business partner, Roman Diakiwski, to find investment properties in early 2018. While negotiating the deal for 313 Center Island Drive, Goldstein was informed by the seller’s agent that the “magic number” was $2.8 million, which Goldstein relayed to Ezekiel, according to the fourth amended complaint in the case. Ezekiel and Diakiwski weren’t interested, and Goldstein let the seller know.
Less than two hours later, Ezekiel’s sister, Irene Ezekiel Ishay, submitted a new offer for $2.8 million. Ishay was the buyer’s broker. The deal closed in March 2020, and Goldstein’s commission was credited back to the buyers as a closing cost credit, according to the complaint. Ishay was paid $5,000. Her brother worked directly with the seller’s agent after the contract was executed because Ishay was on a pre-planned vacation.
The complaint also alleged that Ezekiel and Diakiwski had Ishay contact the seller’s agent, Fernanda De La Cruz, and act as if she had a client named after the entity that ended up purchasing the property, even though that LLC did not yet exist.
Goldstein alleged that when he approached the buyers about his commission, they “taunted him and told him to sue them demonstrating no remorse, no care, and no actual acknowledgement their behavior is morally broken.”
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