Ex-Vornado Exec Says Realty Trust Never Reported Fraud To SEC

The former Vornado Realty Trust executive charged with stealing millions from the public company says his former employer never disclosed any alleged fraud to its financial regulators or auditors.

That, he says, should bar prosecutors from advancing some of their key arguments at trial.

Jared Solomon and his attorneys in a filing earlier this month asked the judge overseeing his criminal embezzlement case to prevent federal prosecutors from submitting evidence to support their charges that the former Vornado leasing executive committed “material fraud” at the REIT.

He argues that Vornado — which is publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange and audited by Deloitte — never disclosed any fraud to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the NYSE or its auditor in the two years since discovering the alleged crime.

During those two years, Vornado certified that its financial statements were accurate and that it had indeed disclosed any fraud to its auditor, Solomon’s attorney argued.

“Simply put, the government cannot ask a jury to simultaneously (a) treat Victim Company-1 as a truthful, blameless public-company victim and (b) find that the same company has, for years, filed false SEC reports, SOX certifications and audited financial statements with no restatement, no corrective disclosure, and no regulatory consequence,” attorney Peter Toumbekis wrote in a memo earlier this month.

Throughout the proceedings, the identity of “Victim Company-1” has been shielded, though sources have confirmed to The Real Deal that the company is Vornado. Solomon was an employee at the REIT for more than a dozen years.

He was charged last December with stealing more than $9.5 million from the company between 2009 and 2023.

Prosecutors in the U.S. Southern District’s office don’t appear to be buying his argument about the disclosures.

They responded to Solomon’s motion, saying that he was trying to shift the focus of the trial away from himself and onto Vornado.

“In essence, the defendant seeks to convert a trial about whether he committed wire fraud and aggravated identity theft into a trial about whether Victim Company-1 has complied with securities laws,” prosecutors wrote. “Whether Victim Company-1 has complied with the securities laws is irrelevant to whether the defendant committed the charged offenses.”

Solomon pleaded not guilty in December and by May prosecutors told the judge overseeing the case that they had reached an agreement in principle with him to change his plea. Solomon switched attorneys, though, and dug in his heels to fight the charges.

If found guilty, he faces up to 20 years in prison.