Eli Karp scored a rare win after a rough patch for his development firm.
Karp and his wife, Miriam, faced the possible loss of their $3 million home in Monsey. It would have marked the dramatic fall for Karp, who ran the once-promising Brooklyn development firm Hello Living.
Since Covid, Karp has battled foreclosures and lawsuits, while waging war against his lenders. He wrote a colorful e-book about his experiences with his alleged predatory lenders, and hung a banner bashing his lenders on a rental property in Flatbush.
In Karp’s latest legal dispute, an investor group filed a lawsuit in New York state court, aiming to get Karp to turn over assets he transferred to his wife. The New Jersey-based investors named in the suit include Praveen Arora, Chaim Nash, Jacob Gold and Victor Bukai.
The saga dates back to 2020, when the investor group secured a $10 million judgment from a religious court over a series of business deals with Karp that went wrong.
In May, the New York state court confirmed the religious court’s ruling. The state court also added interest, increasing the total judgment to over $13 million.
But investors alleged that Karp sold two properties in Monsey for $2 million just as a ruling neared. The investors also allege Karp had improperly transferred four properties to his wife in 2018. Those properties were Karp’s sole assets, according to the investor’s lawyer.
“Defendants are hiding the monies received from these transactions to avoid paying their obligations to plaintiffs and other creditors,” the investor group’s complaint alleged.
In response, Karp’s lawyers argued the transfers happened in 2018, nearly six years before the investors filed their latest lawsuit. They alleged the suit was time-barred and exceeded the statute of limitations.
New York State Supreme Court Judge Christie D’Alessio ruled the investor group’s legal team had cited the wrong legal statute in their arguments, but deferred on the question of statute of limitations.
After the ruling, the two sides settled. Karp was able to keep his home and fight another day.
“We are pleased to have secured a favorable outcome for Mr. Karp, enabling him to move forward,” said Muriel Raggi, an attorney at Jacobs P.C., who represented the Karps.
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