All Year Wants Answers on Yoel Goldman’s Secret Deal

All Year Holdings is seeking to get to the bottom of a “secret partnership agreement” between the firm’s founder Yoel Goldman and his long-time business partner.

Restructuring officers sold off most of All Year’s sprawling real estate portfolio through bankruptcy. But officers in charge of winding down All Year’s business are discovering more about Goldman’s side deals while leading the Brooklyn development firm.

All Year is seeking to collect on a $3 million loan it alleges Goldman made through All Year to Brooklyn investor Alex Engelman in 2017. All Year alleges Engelman defaulted and owes over $6.4 million with interest, according to a complaint filed in federal bankruptcy court.

But Engelman alleges he entered into a secret agreement written in Yiddish with Goldman in 2013. As part of that agreement, Engelman alleges money he invested in Goldman’s real estate deals would be used as a credit to pay off the $3 million loan.

When All Year’s lawyers questioned Goldman whether he had disclosed this agreement to anyone, Goldman repeatedly invoked his fifth amendment.

Since Goldman’s empire was seized by restructuring officers in 2021 and put into bankruptcy, All Year has sold off all of its $1 billion portfolio, including the Denizen and a stake in the William Vale hotel in Williamsburg. The sales paid off All Year’s largest creditor, Israeli bondholders. Goldman has since been banned from raising money in Israel’s capital markets for five years.

The top priority for the restructuring specialists and attorneys was to sell the assets through bankruptcy. Step two appears to be to collect on Goldman’s side deals. All Year has already filed a lawsuit against Goldman’s former yeshiva friend and neighbor Yoel Silberstein over a loan it alleges Goldman made through All Year.

In All Year’s lawsuit against Engelman, the wind-down company alleges Goldman caused All Year to loan Silberstein $3 million in 2017. A year later, the loan matured with interest. All Year, under the control of restructuring officers, asked Engelman to pay back the loan in 2022.

This is where things get juicy.

Goldman claimed Engelman funded different real estate deals through property level LLCs, but he did not know where or what amounts. On other questions, Goldman responded by pleading the fifth.

Engelman argues he had a secret agreement with Goldman. He said they started investing together in various real estate ventures in 2009. In one deal, Engelman said he and his family invested $1.83 million to acquire 50 percent of the stake in a property at 82 Jefferson Street in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood.

Engelman claimed he asked Goldman to give him credits to pay off the loan, instead of distribution payments on 82 Jefferson Street. Engelman said the $3 million loan was paid back within months, according to a declaration he provided in court filings.

But All Year’s lawyers claim the “secret partnership agreement” was a way to disguise the true nature of the loan from All Year and creditors. They allege Goldman revealed his plans in a written correspondence with Engelman in March 2017.

Goldman told Engelman that as a condition of obtaining the loan, the two would “have to make something for the bonds. Like on which building the loan is officially,” according to All Year’s wind-down company in court filings.

Goldman refused to fund the loan until Engelman agreed to these conditions, writing “confirm or we cancel the wire. It’s [a] condition.” Engelman accepted on the same day.

“There was no reason to “make something for the bonds,” All Year wrote in its complaint. “Except to disguise the loan from the Debtor’s and its creditors’ view.”

All Year said it only learned about this partnership agreement during a deposition with Goldman in October. It also alleges the agreement is between Goldman and Engelman personally, not All Year.

Lawyers representing All Year’s wind-down company did not return a request for comment. Engelman’s lawyer also did not immediately return a request for comment. Goldman has never responded to press inquiries.