It’s Mortgage Mayhem in New York City

It was another big week for mortgage fraud news in New York City.

Indicted attorney Mark Nussbaum — who is in the eye of a legal storm — provided a list of his debtors and creditors as part of an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors (ABC) to repay an estimated $400 million to jilted creditors.

The largest alleged debtor is late real estate investor Mendel Steiner, who Nussbaum claims owes more than $306 million. Other notable debtors include Boruch Drillman ($4.7 million), Eli Puretz ($4.1 million) and Shaya Prager ($1.1 million).

Nussbaum’s assets primarily consist of his accounts receivable, real estate interests, $2 million in cryptocurrency and $91,000 in wine/alcohol, which someone in his situation could understandably need these days.

In another case, Mendel Deutsch of Toms River, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to one count of bank and wire fraud conspiracy and one count of wire fraud for his role in a brazen commercial mortgage fraud scheme in Brooklyn.

Deutsch pleaded guilty last month, a few weeks after one of his co-conspirators, Joshua Feldberger of the title insurer Universal Abstract, pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud conspiracy.

Deutsche faces a maximum sentence of up to 50 years and a maximum fine of $1.25 million, although he will likely be sentenced to a less harsh punishment.

In politics, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani met with real estate developers, lenders and investors to discuss the housing crisis, reassuring them he is open to their feedback and collaboration after big names in the industry fought against his campaign.

Mamdani acknowledged the “very important” role the private market plays in housing construction, but still reaffirmed his commitment to freezing rents for stabilized tenants and support for an overhaul of the city’s property tax system.

Other key topics on the agenda included the importance of slashing the time it takes to lease up affordable housing units and the need to fund renovations for rent-stabilized apartments that are being kept off the market.

In commercial real estate news, David Werner is buying another property at a bargain basement price.

The investor is in contract to purchase the 50-story One Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza tower for $270 million, a deal expected to close early next year. That’s roughly half of the $566 million price tag that seller Rockpoint Group paid for the Midtown East office tower in 2019

Werner’s Christmas list is full of deeply discounted office buildings snapped up in recent years.

That includes the Hudson Yards-area office building at 440 Ninth Avenue he bought in August for $105 million (sellers Taconic Investment Partners and Nuveen Real Estate paid $269 million in 2018), the building at 205 East 42nd Street he and 601W Companies bought last month for about $300 per square foot and the tower at 675 Third Avenue he and Metro Loft Management bought in April for $100 million.

And finally, Jeff Sutton decided to sell “the one with” the famous facade.

His Wharton Properties sold the six-story West Village apartment building at 90 Bedford Street — famously used as the exterior for the TV show “Friends” — to an international investor for $32.7 million in an off-market deal.

Sutton bought the building in February 2024 for $18.25 million and extensively renovated most of the 21 fully leased apartments.

The property, a pilgrimage site for fans and tourists since 1997, includes the ground-floor restaurant Little Owl.