Kent Security Sues Sapir Org Over Madison Ave Offices

The Alexander family’s private security company is suing the Sapir Organization for allegedly failing to pay the firm for services at two Midtown East office buildings.

Kent Security said in its lawsuit filed in New York that Alex Sapir’s firm owes more than $400,000 plus interest for work the South Florida-headquartered company provided at 260 and 261 Madison Avenue. Sapir’s management firm and the LLC that previously owned the two properties are also named as defendants.

According to the complaint, Kent agreed to staff the buildings with security guards in February 2020 and continued to do so until the end of January, when the company terminated its agreement roughly three months after the ownership entity stopped paying its invoices.

Around the same time, news broke that Sapir planned to sell one of the buildings, 260 Madison Avenue, to Jonathan Bennett’s AmTrustRE for more than $200 million, the deal for which closed in December.

In the complaint, Kent’s attorneys state that the company reassigned its guards to 261 Madison Avenue, which houses Sapir’s offices and which the firm still owns. Following the sale, representatives for the company reassured Kent that the unpaid invoices would be paid, though the firm still hasn’t received the outstanding balances, the complaint claims.

The lawsuit also accuses Sapir’s firm of violating its contract with Kent by hiring at least three of its former employees after Kent stopped providing services to the firm. Under the terms of the agreement, Sapir’s hiring of these employees would require the company to pay Kent roughly $30,000 in fees.

A representative with the Sapir Organization said in a statement that the company was “surprised” by the filing, adding that the firm didn’t have an “adequate opportunity to address or respond to the claims beforehand.”

“There were discrepancies with the final invoice that contributed to the delayed payment, and Sapir is actively working with Kent to resolve the matter promptly,” the spokesperson said in the statement.

Attorneys representing Kent Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kent also this month filed to sue the owners and managers of the Park West Village properties on the Upper West Side, including the Chetrit Group and Stellar Management. In the lawsuit, attorneys for Kent accuse the companies of breach of contract and failure to pay more than $770,000 in fees.

Family ties

The Madison Avenue properties, which Sapir’s family bought in 1997, were tangled up in a legal battle between Sapir and his former brother-in-law, In a lawsuit filed by Sapir in 2022, the heir to his father’s real estate empire accused Rosen and his brothers, also former executives with the Sapir Organization, of issuing themselves a $580,000 personal loan from the LLC that owned the office buildings.

Kent Security was co-founded in Miami in the 1980s by Shlomy and Orly Alexander, the parents of former top brokers Tal and Oren Alexander and their brother Alon. Earlier this year, the three brothers were convicted on 10 federal charges related to sex trafficking.

Orly’s brother Gil Neuman also co-founded the company, and serves as CEO. Alon was an executive with the firm before his arrest in December 2024. The company has been named as a defendant in some lawsuits filed by women accusing one or more of the brothers of sexual assault.

A sentencing hearing for the brothers, who are being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, is scheduled for Aug. 6. Tal, Oren and Alon have repeatedly denied the allegations and their attorneys have indicated they plan to appeal.