John Mingione Heads to Trial For Real Estate Fraud Scheme

Almost two years after being indicted, Omnibuild and its former CEO John Mingione are finally nearing a trial date for their alleged roles in a $86 million fraud scheme.

The New York construction firm and Mingione reached a tentative agreement with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for a trial in April, which could last six to eight weeks.

Prosecutors said they recently completed their discovery, consisting of at least 470,000 documents.

“I suppose we’re ready to go to trial,” said Christopher Beard, an assistant District Attorney, during a hearing in front of Judge Ann Thompson in December.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office alleged in early 2024 that Mingione and Omnibuild participated in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme spearheaded by former HFZ Capital Group executive Nir Meir to inflate invoices at the XI, a twisting condo project on the High Line. The D.A.’s office charged Omnibuild and Mingione with grand larceny.

But since the start, Mingione and Omnibuild have maintained their innocence. They argued they were victims of the Meir and HFZ Capital’s bad acts. (Kevin Stewart, a former accountant at Omnibuild, was also charged for his role in the scheme.)

“Omnibuild voluntarily assisted the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for months,” said Omnibuild’s civil attorney John Ruggiero. “Despite that good-faith cooperation, and correspondence from the District Attorney’s office confirming Omnibuild’s status as a victim, the District Attorney’s office ultimately chose to rely on a small number of self-interested cooperators who sought to avoid prosecution by shifting blame onto Omnibuild and Mr. Mingione.”

Ruggiero also said the District Attorney’s office has excluded “exculpatory evidence” from its discovery production.

The D.A.’s office said in a response that it “will respond to any defense motions in court filings.”

Mingione and Omnibuild were eager to set a trial date. Omnibuild’s criminal defense attorney Eric Snyder said the company’s stock option plan has dropped to a fraction of its former value.

“The company can’t get jobs. They can’t work. HPD [Housing Preservation Department] is holding up their work,” said Snyder at the hearing in December. “It’s destructive, it’s devastating. It’s choking off the company of these employees.”

In 2024, Omnibuild’s employees claimed that the indictment alone led to $1 billion in losses.

Snyder pleaded with the court to hold the April trial date in place.

“We want to keep this date. If it moves again, it’s going to be the company dying on the vine,” he said.

The case has dragged on since February 2024, when the charges were first announced against Meir, Mingione, Stewart, Omnibuild, HFZ, a former Omnibuild employee and two former HFZ employees.

Prosecutors leveled the most serious charges against Meir. The D.A.’s office alleged Meir diverted millions of dollars from HFZ’s real estate projects only to return the money with sizable shortfalls. Meir was also accused of defrauding New York City out of $15 million in taxes.

Meir was fired from luxury real estate developer HFZ in December 2020, as the firm was losing its high-profile projects to foreclosure. Meir’s former boss Ziel Feldman blamed Meir for the firm’s collapse in a scathing lawsuit. As Meir fended off lawsuits from HFZ creditors, he hunkered down in a Miami Beach estate, paying $150,000 per month in rent, until he was arrested in a hotel room at the 1 Hotel South Beach and extradited to New York in February 2024.

Meir, who has pleaded not guilty, is now on his third attorney.

He was initially held without bail and held on Rikers Island for nearly a year before being released in March 2025 on a reduced bail package of $1 million. Just weeks later the judge claimed Meir violated the terms of his bail and sent him back to jail.

Meir was released in June, but with electronic monitoring and restricted to the confines of a New York apartment.

Meanwhile, HFZ Capital, two of its former employees, including their head of construction, and a former Omnibuild employee have pleaded guilty to various charges. None of the defendants who pleaded guilty were given jail sentences.

At the December hearing, the D.A’s office said it has sent over a certificate of compliance to Meir’s lawyer for his four indictments, meaning the prosecutors have provided all discovery and a trial date appears imminent.

Meir will be tried separately from Omnibuild and Mingione.

At the end of the December hearing with Omnibuild and Mingione’s lawyers present, the judge suggested the parties look at an alternative resolution other than a trial.

“I will always encourage a disposition, if there’s any way toward a disposition… in much the way… that we ask jurors to consider the views of their fellow jurors, and don’t be so wedded to their position, I ask that of all of you,” said Thompson.