The trouble isn’t over for Neil Binder’s Bellmarc Group, which could face court-appointed receivership over unpaid bank fees.
Capital One bank asked a Suffolk County judge on March 3 to appoint a receiver in its attempt to collect $578,235 from the embattled brokerage.
According to court documents, Binder defaulted on a $1.15 million promissory note dated Feb. 1, 2009. Capital One sought relief from the courts in September 2014 and in December of that year, Judge Emily Pines ruled in favor of the bank, ordering Binder to pay $557,697 plus interest.
A hearing on the motion to appoint a receiver is set for March 21.
After prolonged legal and financial woes, Bellmarc in January shuttered four offices around Manhattan and currently operates out of a single office in the Flatiron district. At the time, Binder told The Real Deal that he created a new search engine that will help eliminate the need for multiple locations.
Bellmarc has around 200 agents, down from roughly 600 in 2013, when the firm signed a franchise agreement with Coldwell Banker. In 2015, Coldwell Banker terminated the relationship with Bellmarc, citing unpaid fees totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In February, two former agents sued Bellmarc alleging that they weren’t paid commissions they had earned. Binder denies those claims.