Cash-strapped hedge funder Alphonse “Buddy” Fletcher could be on the hook for $3 million in fees related to his six-year discrimination suit against the board of the famed Dakota apartment building.
Lawyers for the historic Upper West Side co-op — home to Yoko Ono and other celebrities — have asked a judge to award them $3 million in fees for litigating the suit, which was dismissed in 2015.
The building’s insurance company has already paid out $4.6 million, according to court papers cited by the New York Post.
Fletcher claimed the famously-selective co-op board discriminated against him when it refused to sell him another unit at The Upper West Side Building On West 72nd Street.
A judge dismissed the discrimination suit in 2015, saying his weak financial position was reason enough to be turned down. Fletcher’s fund, Fletcher International, went belly-up in 2012.
Last year, Fletcher agreed to pay the co-op $122,000 to allow his mother to remain in her apartment. Fletcher used a trust to buy the Dakota pad for his mom in 2002, but reportedly was unable to keep up with payments after his hedge fund fell apart. [NYP] — E.B. Solomont