Joseph Aquino, longtime right hand man to Douglas Elliman retail maven Faith Hope Consolo, says she’s been improperly muscling in on his remaining commissions, two months after he was fired from the brokerage for filing a lawsuit claiming owed commissions.
In an amended legal complaint filed last week in New York State Supreme Court, Aquino accused his former partner of submitting false “split sheets” to Elliman on a deal the pair completed prior to his departure from the brokerage.
In the submission, Consolo allegedly claimed that she was entitled to 100 percent of the commissions from a deal the duo closed for the Riccardo Maggiore hair salon at 114 East 57th Street earlier this year, when in fact they were supposed to split the commissions, Aquino argued in legal documents.
Elliman then stiffed him on paying his rightful commission, he claims.
“There is every reason to believe that Consolo will continue to provide split sheets to DE that omit Mr. Aquino’s name as a proper recipient of commissions, and that DE will continue to pay only Consolo these commissions, despite their knowledge that Mr. Aquino was a procuring cause of the transactions,” the complaint says.
A spokesperson for Douglas Elliman declined to comment. Consolo also did not comment.
Consolo has now been named as a defendant in Aquino’s pending suit against Elliman, in which he alleges that the firm improperly deducted over $1 million of his commissions in part to pay for Consolo’s extravagant personal expenses, including her spa treatments, cashmere sweaters, beauty supplies, and her $100-a-day makeup session. The lawsuit was filed March in in New York Supreme Court.
Elliman has 30 days to respond to Aquino’s allegations, according to his attorney, Cindy Salvo.
An attorney for the Elliman previously told TRD that the suit was “a desperate effort by Mr. Aquino to get an undeserved payday.”
Aquino and Consolo had been partners since 1989 when they began working together at Garrick-Aug. They moved together to DE in 2004.
Aquino was fired from his position at the company following the filing of his lawsuit in March. He claims company executives, including CEO Dottie Herman, “barged into his office and ordered him out of the building.”