Vornado’s Glen Weiss Testifies At Jared Solomon Trial

For 16 years, Vornado’s Glen Weiss worked side by side with one of his star leasing agents, promoting him through the company and even visiting his suburban New Jersey home.

It didn’t occur to Weiss that he might have to look over his colleague’s deals with the eye of a criminal investigator.

“I trusted Jared Solomon,” Weiss testified Wednesday, the second day of Solomon’s criminal fraud trial, in the Southern District of New York.

But for most of that time, Solomon allegedly pulled off an elaborate deception, presenting Weiss with fake business documents to charge Vornado upwards of $10 million for work that was never done.

Weiss, Vornado’s leasing chief and a 40-year veteran of the company, interviewed Solomon in 2007 and hired him. It was his job to review and sign off on the leasing deals his young report negotiated.

Solomon was one of about six leasing agents under Weiss’ supervision and also held a law degree. His portfolio included a digital billboard at Vornado’s 1540 Broadway, at the bow tie in Times Square. The sign is at the heart of the federal government’s fraud case against Solomon.

The sign, which is recognizable to many who visit the Crossroads of the Earth, has displayed ads for companies like HBO, VH1 and Allied Bank.

“Very highly desirable,” Glenn described the billboard.

One of the companies that leases the sign is the multinational electronics company LG. It does so through a Hudson Square-based media company named Havas Media.

From his perch at Vornado, Solomon in 2015 negotiated an agreement with Havas to lease the sign for six years at a cost of $4.5 million. An executive who worked for the company at the time testified that Havas had no broker representing it in the negotiations.

But Solomon submitted a pair of invoices to Weiss totaling $1.5 million to be paid to a company called Margoux Media, which Solomon said was Havas’ broker. In reality, Margoux Media is a company created by Solomon.

An employee from JP Morgan Chase testified that Solomon opened a bank account in the name of Margoux Media at the Chase branch across the street from Vornado’s headquarters at 888 Seventh Avenue. To do this, he provided a business certificate that should have been filed with the Manhattan County Clerk’s office — but the clerk testified he could find no such certificate on file. (One of the counts the U.S. Attorney’s office has charged Solomon with is a bank fraud charge against JPMorgan.)

Over the years, Vornado paid several invoices to Margoux Media totaling $8.6 million. It made more payments to other brokerages and to a contractor that prosecutors allege Solomon concocted in a similar manner.

However, in opening statements on Tuesday his defense attorney, Peter Toumbekis, said Margoux Media and the others were bonafide brokerages. He said when Vornado found out that Solomon was behind the companies, it got angry and assumed a criminal intent.

“They’re real companies,” Toumbekis said. “What they didn’t know … [was] Jared owned the companies. They found out and got upset.”

Through the first two days of the trial, Toumbekis has not called any witnesses who could support that theory. Nor did he ask Weiss any questions that would make his case.

At least one question remains unanswered: The prosecution never asked Weiss how Vornado eventually discovered Solomon’s alleged scams.

Weiss did say that Vornado has a conflict-of-interest policy barring employees from working as brokers representing Vornado tenants. If he had discovered Solomon’s connection to Margoux Media during the LG deals, the consequences would have been swift.

“I would’ve immediately told him to stop discussions with LG and he would’ve been fired,” he explained.

Weiss also shed some light on a topic that’s come up over the course of the case: Solomon’s perceived affluence.

The prosecution said Solomon used the money he stole to “to fund a lifestyle he had not earned,” including a house in the Westchester suburbs, an Upper East Side co-op, a Porsche and a country club membership.

Before the trial, Toumbekis tried to prevent prosecutors from presenting certain evidence that he said could create a “wealth-based bias.” People who knew Solomon told The Real Deal that there had long been whispers about how he could fund his luxurious lifestyle on his salary.

Weiss testified that Solomon earned a salary in 2009 of roughly $160,000 — a figure that climbed to more than $772,000 in 2023. He said Solomon would often point out that brokers made more money than he did, and that he seemed fixated on the homes, cars and material possessions others owned.

Weiss said Solomon would ask why he wasn’t being paid more at their bi-annual performance reviews, as well as in casual conversations.

“He was generally dissatisfied with his compensation,” he said.