Mark Nussbaum turns on nursing home magnate Tzali Chopp

Disgraced attorney and fixer Mark Nussbaum is turning against his former friend and deal partner as creditors seek to collect more than $400 million in missing escrow funds.

Sheldon Eisenberger, an attorney handling the wind-down and liquidation of Nussbaum’s former law firms, has launched a lawsuit against nursing home entrepreneur and Nussbaum’s former friend Tzali Chopp of Opal Healthcare.

The lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York alleges Chopp failed to pay back a $3 million loan from Nussbaum. Eisenberger now alleges Chopp owes $6.3 million with interest.

Whatsapp messages between Nussbaum and Chopp included in the lawsuit offer a rare window into Nussbaum’s business. Nussbaum has admitted to running a Ponzi scheme with his associate Mendel Steiner. Part of the scheme involved using Nussbaum’s escrow funds to lend money to real estate dealmakers as short-term loans.

The messages illustrate Nussbaum’s nonchalance when it came to extending loans or making investments. Some messages show that Nussbaum lent money first and asked questions later.

[6/8/22, 12:21:44 PM] Tzally Chopp: I needed originally 3.5 u gave me like 2.3 need another million and I’m good

[6/8/22, 12:22:44 PM] Mark Nussbaaum: not sure i can do another MM, and i need to understand how money coming back, etc., can we speak at 2?

Others show that Chopp appears to request proof of funds for his company, Opal Healthcare, in an unrelated deal. (Nussbaum used a tactic called show capital where he would provide short term loans to make borrowers look capitalized).

[8/11/22, 1:42:55 PM] Tzally Chopp: Please send me letter saying opal Hcs has 15M

for operating ty if this works I make crazy money

[8/11/22, 1:46:04 PM] Nussbaum: and you will remember that i helped you so i can make some crazy money also, yes?

Nussbaum diverted about $336 million of his clients’ escrow money through to late Brooklyn-based investor Mendel Steiner who allegedly moved money through his shell companies and his family, lawsuits allege.

But tens of millions went to other real estate dealmakers, including Boruch Drillman, Shaya Prager and Mark Meisner, usually as loans or preferred equity. Eisenberger is tasked with collecting on those outstanding debts in order to help pay the creditors back.

Collecting from these debtors will be a challenge given Nussbaum’s penchant for handshake deals and lack of formal record keeping.

For instance, Chopp’s attorneys allege the $3 million in alleged loans which Eisenberger seeks to collect on are usurious and unenforceable. Chopp’s attorneys, who declined to comment, allege the interest on the loans amounted to 35.7 percent of the alleged principal loan account, which is beyond the legal limit of 25 percent.

Eisenberger, who is known as the assignee in the process, “is unable to challenge this basic math, so instead offers inadmissible testimony from the disgraced and now indicted attorney Mark Nussbaum,” Chopp’s attorneys claim in a legal filing.

In response Eisenberger’s team denies the loans were usurious. Eisenberger alleges Chopp made a $120,000 payment on the loans, which specifically went to paying accrued interest.

To further support their argument, Eisenberger’s legal team included a statement from Nussbaum.

Nussbaum said he met Chopp at his house in Suffern, New York in 2022 and reached an agreement to provide up to $3 million revolving line of credit to Chopp through four transactions at a 2 percent monthly rate.

Nussbaum claims he made the loans to Chopp through various accounts. This included $1 million from a Nussbaum Lowinger bank account to Opal Healthcare WI, a nursing home venture in Wisconsin controlled by Chopp. (Opal Holdings’ Shaya Prager, known for his controversial ground lease structure, has ties to the venture as well, based on lawsuits and public records.)

The WhatsApp messages between Nussbaum and Chopp clearly show the two setting up meetings at Nussbaum’s house and other locations.

[8/18/24, 12:18:17 PM] Nussbaum: When can we speak. Happy to meet also. Need to get comfortable with September.

[8/19/24, 11:08:15 AM] Nussbaum: lmk pls

[8/19/24, 11:08:53 AM] Tzally Chopp: Meet Friday in Monsey on the way up to Catskills

[8/19/24, 11:09:02 AM] Nussbaum: DEAL! 🙂

[8/19/24, 11:09:08 AM] Tzally Chopp: Ty

[8/19/24, 11:09:16 AM] Nussbaum: lmk when, appreciate, miss u anyway, been too long

AND pls bring tefilin! 🙂

[8/23/24, 8:27:10 AM] Nussbaum: Lmk when we meeting. Ty

[8/24/24, 9:03:20 PM] Nussbaum: Gv. My ppl are asking how the meeting went. I prepared

them for September. They ask that I get more info and confirm. And now after telling

them I am meeting you Friday I look like an ass. And now they asking me how the

meeting went

Nussbaum continued to reach out to Chopp about a “debt” throughout 2024, carrying on their chummy rapport.

[9/17/24, 3:56:33 PM] Nussbaum: How we looking?

[9/18/24, 6:32:19 PM] Nussbaum: Lmk

[9/19/24, 3:00:54 PM] Nussbaum: talk to me bro

[9/19/24, 3:03:20 PM] Tzally Chopp: Looking good call u tomorrow

[9/19/24, 3:03:33 PM] Nussbaum: ty bHHHHH

[9/23/24, 8:49:07 AM] Nussbaum: When can we speak?

Just a few months later, Nussbaum and Steiner’s alleged Ponzi scheme started to unravel as Nussbaum faced a gaping deficit owed to his escrow clients. Nussbaum shut down his law firm Nussbaum Lowinger in January 2025 days after Steiner died by suicide in a Manhattan hotel room. In May, the Manhattan District Attorney indicted Nussbaum alleging he stole over $15 million from clients’ escrow accounts. Nussbaum has pleaded not guilty. His next court date is scheduled for March 3.

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