Omnibuild’s John Mingione Speaks About Indictment

John Mingione, former CEO of Omnibuild, is on a mission to clear his name.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office indicted Mingione, Omnibuild and two employees last year, with prosecutors alleging that Omnibuild employees assisted HFZ Capital Group’s Nir Meir in one part of a multi-million dollar fraud scheme.

But Mingione claims in a new filing that he did the opposite of helping HFZ and Meir — he provided letters to lenders and their lawyers alerting them that HFZ breached its contract with Omnibuild and was stealing lenders’ money.

“The only thing I didn’t do is take Nir Meir and hang him out the window like Suge Knight did,” Mingione said, referring to a tale about the former CEO of Death Row Records and Vanilla Ice.

Omnibuild and Mingione, who have pleaded not guilty, allege that District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office failed to provide these letters to the grand jury that indicted the company and its former manager.

The indictment has essentially put the firm out of business, the filing claims: it lost nearly $1 billion in revenue and laid off half its employees. Mingione resigned a few months after the indictment.

Omnibuild claims its lawyer gave the letters to the D.A. in the summer of 2020, but the D.A. failed to submit them to the grand jury. “We sent the letters, we lien-ed the [XI] project, we sued them, we defaulted them,” Mingione said.

Oliver Storch, Meir’s attorney, was dismissive of the new claims.

“Desperate criminal defendants will make desperate claims blaming others for their alleged misconduct,” he said. “Referencing possible violent retribution against Mr. Meir, who is presumed innocent, is dangerous and intimidating.”

In an unusual move, Mingione spoke candidly to The Real Deal about the indictment.

“It’s the most frustrating thing we’ve ever witnessed in our entire lives,” Mingione said. “At one point, if I believed I would have fallen on the sword and said I did something wrong, I think they would have left Omnibuild out. But I didn’t do anything wrong.”

The D.A’s office told TRD it would respond in court papers.

Prosecutors accused HFZ’s former managing principal Meir in February 2023 of being the mastermind of fraud schemes, alleging that Meir moved hundreds of millions of dollars among real estate projects seeking to keep them afloat despite glaring shortfalls.

Meir was fired from HFZ in late 2020. He spent the next two years dodging lawsuits while spending millions of dollars on gold, a $150,000-a-month rental house, strip clubs and fine wine. Meir was ultimately arrested in February of last year at the 1 Hotel South Beach residences. He has pleaded not guilty and is currently being housed on Rikers Island.

“Mr. Meir has pleaded not guilty and will address all allegations in the appropriate forum,” Storch added.

HFZ has pleaded guilty, blaming Meir. Ziel Feldman, the chairman and founder of HFZ, was not named in the indictment.

The XI is at the center of the alleged fraud scheme.

In 2017, Children’s Investment Fund lent $1.25 billion to the condo project in Chelsea. After loan funds were deposited into the project’s bank account, prosecutors allege Meir transferred $253 million to different entities controlled by HFZ and then back into the project’s bank account. But once the money went back to the XI’s account, there was a $37 million deficit.

Prosecutors allege executives from HFZ and Omnibuild used subcontractors to inflate monthly invoices. This made it look like the project was further along than it was and caused the lender to release additional funds to HFZ, according to the D.A.

Omnibuild, Mingione and two additional Omnibuild employees, Director of Accounting Kevin Stewart and Project Executive Roy Galifi, are charged with grand larceny.

But Omnibuild has insisted it is a victim of HFZ’s fraud, not a co-conspirator. The firm has filed a civil lawsuit in New York state court against its lenders, Talos Capital, TCI Rep International and its parent, Children’s Investment Fund, and HFZ, alleging it repeatedly notified HFZ and its lenders that payments for its work on the XI had been missed but that they were told to keep working and the money would come through.

“Omnibuild’s allegations against TCI and the funds are false and completely without merit,” Stephen Meister, TCI’s attorney, said. “TCI and the funds fully expect the Court to agree.”

Omnibuild put a $100 million lien on the XI project in 2020, citing payment shortfalls by HFZ.

“The District Attorney’s office didn’t know anything about HFZ until we defaulted them,” Mingione said.

According to Omnibuild’s filing, the D.A. also withheld evidence that HFZ engaged in a check-kiting scheme in which HFZ provided a dozen checks that it did not have the funds to cover.

Mingione said Meir would wire money to Omnibuild, but he would send physical checks to cover shortfalls. In total, Meir sent over 2,000 checks.

Meir would “say that he was waiting for the EB-5 money to come in,” Mingione said.

Mingione claimed that Omnibuild’s lawyers found in discovery that HFZ obtained the EB-5 funds but did not put the money into the project.

There was a lot at stake: XI would have propelled Omnibuild from a reliable mid-sized contractor to the firm that built one of Manhattan’s most ambitious condo towers.

But Mingione, like Feldman, Meir’s ex-wife, and others, claims that he fell victim to Meir’s false promises.

“The XI was a monstrous project that would have changed our portfolio,” said Mingione. “We knew the animal we were dealing with, but we didn’t know the extent of it. You never think that someone could be as bad as they say.”

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated that Meir is awaiting sentencing.