Isaac Toledano, Yaakov Morad Sue Each Other in Aventura Deal

Isaac Toledano is tied up in dueling lawsuits with an Israeli businessman over South Florida real estate in a dispute that has boiled over into family drama tied to one of Toledano’s daughters.

Yaakov Morad and his affiliate Apirion Real Estate sued Toledano on June 23, alleging that Toledano lied about the value of a 28,000-square-foot Aventura office building and then flipped it to Morad and Apirion at an “inflated” price, according to the complaint. Toledano used Morad’s limited English and the fact he was doing the deal as part of a 1031 exchange to pressure him through the due diligence, the suit says.

Toledano responded with a suit against Morad the next day, denying any wrongdoing in the deal, saying that the sale price per share was actually less than market value, and claiming Morad failed to meet capital calls for a separate project, the mixed-use Southland City Center in Cutler Bay, and is over $720,000 behind on funding obligations. Toledano claims Morad often had nothing but praise for Toledano, but things devolved as Morad’s businesses, which are mostly in Israel, allegedly declined. Meanwhile, difficulties arose in Morad’s brother’s marriage to one of Toledano’s daughters.

Both suits were filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.

Toledano, who four years ago had little name recognition in South Florida real estate, has skyrocketed to become one of the more prolific developers in the region. Through his Aventura-based BH Group, which he runs with his wife, Liat Toledano, he’s partnered with heavy hitters including the Pérez family’s Coconut Grove-based Related Group. In a statement, he “categorically” denied Morad’s allegations, saying they’re “entirely without merit.” He added that he and his family built up their real estate business with a multibillion dollar development portfolio over 25 years.

Morad also named BH Worldwide Real Estate Holdings in his complaint and levied claims for fraud, negligent misrepresentation and breach of fiduciary duty. Toledano filed the suit with four of his affiliates as plaintiffs, also naming Apirion and BH Apirion as defendants, levying claims for declaratory relief and breach of contract.

Family feud

The animosity is spilling beyond real estate deals and into family feuds.

Yarin Toledano, the eldest of Toledano’s six daughters, married Netanel Morad, Yaakov Morad’s younger brother, in 2022, according to records and court filings. The couple’s divorce was finalized in December, court filings show.

Toledano claims Morad’s suit feels like “extortion” and an attempt “to transform a private family dispute into a commercial lawsuit,” and he alleged Netanel was violent against Yarin. But Yarin, who reached out to The Real Deal on her own, vehemently denied this, saying her ex-husband never abused her.

Toledano shared photos with TRD showing red marks on the woman’s wrist and elsewhere on her body, claiming it’s evidence of the violence. He also shared videos of the married couple speaking Hebrew in what appears to be their home, as well as a copy of what appears to be a translated police report and surety bond against Netanel in Israel dated April 30, with the “details of the crime” section of the document describing “attack that caused real damage — spouse.”

“For the last 12 months and only after the family dispute, the divorce, the alleged domestic violence incidents, and the filing of criminal complaints that resulted in Netanel Morad’s arrest less than 60 days ago, did these allegations suddenly emerge while Yakov Morad owes me approximately 2 million dollars … the chronology speaks for itself!” Toledano said in a statement. The photos and videos are “only a small portion of what my family and I have endured over the past year,” he said.

“The allegations that my father made are false, and he knows they are false,” Yarin Toledano said, adding that he attempted to do the same thing in Israel. “They are attempting to leverage these false and terrible allegations in an attempt to bolster their argument in the lawsuit.”

The photos her father shared are from an injury she had and not from abuse, she said. She sent photos of Netanel and herself wearing matching pajamas and kissing at a theme park, with their daughter between them, and she referred to Netanel as “my husband.”

Yarin’s petition for divorce filed last year says “the father is verbally, emotionally, psychologically, and physically abusive to the mother,” an allegation Netanel denied in court.

An attorney for Morad declined to comment, saying he can’t obtain client authorization due to the time difference with Israel.

Representatives from Morad’s camp also pushed back on the allegations of domestic abuse.

Real estate feud

Toledano and Morad met sometime in 2021 when Yarin and Netanel were dating, according to Toledano’s complaint.

In his suit, Morad claims that Toledano, through his entities, bought out his partners in the Aventura office building at 20295 Northeast 29th Place for $10 million — yet shortly after flipped a 90 percent stake to Morad in 2021 based on Toledano’s claims the property was valued at $13.3 million. Under the binding term sheet, Morad agreed to pay $6.2 million, which excluded a $6.4 million loan on the property, according to the suit.

As Morad pressed for information on the building’s value before the deal, Toledano leveraged his familial ties at the time to the Morad family with statements such as “We are family.” and “I am taking care of it,” Morad said in his suit. In a call in 2021, Toledano told Morad he was getting “the best price” for Morad because Netanel is like his “ninth son,” the suit says.

Even as Toledano was telling Morad he was trying to bring his partners to the lowest price for the building, or $13.3 million, Toledano already had bought out his partners for $10 million and was trying to immediately flip the property, according to Morad’s complaint. The trade was structured in a way that no deed was recorded, according to his lawsuit.

Morad alleges BH Group’s public marketing of the size of its portfolio is inaccurate. His suit says that in reality “Toledano plays a bit role” in projects and “typically latches himself on to other, more successful real estate developers or investors.”

In his complaint and statement, Toledano says Morad’s suit comes more than five years after the Aventura deal closed, adding that during that time, Morad and Apirion brought up no accusations and also bought the remaining 10 percent stake in the building last year.

Toledano’s original offer to Morad involved buying out partners in the property in early 2021 for $10 million, but Morad refused, according to Toledano’s complaint. Shortly after Toledano closed that deal, purchase offers for the property came in for $13.5 million and $13.6 million, according to his complaint. Toledano sent Morad copies of these offers, and Morad bought his stake at the $13.3 million valuation, according to the complaint. In the suit, Toledano said Morad is a “sophisticated” investor and said Apirion did “due diligence to its satisfaction.”

Even though a signed contract came in 2022 for $16 million, which would have meant a $2.4 million gain for Morad, he refused it and said they could probably get $20 million, Toledano claimed in his complaint.

In Cutler Bay, BH Group and Electra America are partnering on the over $1.5 billion Southland City Center project with 5,000 residences in 18-story buildings, 650,000 square feet of retail, a 177,000-square-foot medical office building and a 150-key hotel on portions of Southland Mall. Apirion agreed to fund 90 percent of BH Group affiliates’ capital calls –– with no limit to the capital calls –– in return for 50 percent of future distributions to BH entities, according to Toledano’s complaint.

Tension started a few months after the deal was signed, when Morad wrote to Toledano, “‘This is my last wire, I won’t be able to send more,’” according to Toledano’s suit.

A large portion of the complaint is dedicated to outlining correspondence between the two, including providing many direct quotes from Toledano’s messages to Morad urging him to fund capital calls and reminding him of impending funding deadlines. At one point Toledano offered to cover payments for Morad, according to the complaint. In a September 2024 exchange in which Netanel was included, Netanel allegedly asked his brother for forgiveness for bringing him into the deal, saying he didn’t know interest rates would increase and that Morad’s business would decline, pointing out that Morad’s accounting manager stole 3 million shekels from him, according to the complaint.

In September 2024, in response to Toledano’s message to Morad that he was $100,000 in default and still owed $150,000 for that month, Morad allegedly wrote: “I’m on the edge. I can’t do this each month. But I pay late until everything works out.”

Toledano says he tried to help Morad, including covering about $1.1 million of his capital calls, and trying to bring in an investor to take Morad’s part in the project, according to the complaint. At one point, Morad started requesting equity in the development. Toledano tried to obtain Electra’s required approval for Morad to get equity, but Electra refused, which it was entitled to do, the complaint says.

“The last time you put money into this deal was 4 ½ months ago … It is not agreed that I am the financing company for this deal,” Toledano wrote in November 2024.