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By the time the lender sued HFZ, Feldman, and Meir in November, the developer was already in financial ruin. A month later, Meir left the company and HFZ was facing foreclosures, liens and allegations of wrongdoing from subcontractors.
Making lender YH Lex Estates even more nervous, Feldman and Meir were selling off their personal residences assets that could be used to satisfy the guarantees on HFZ’s loans. The Southampton estate Meir was unloading, built in 2017, had been appraised at about $40 million.
YH Lex Estates tried but failed to stop the sale, which closed in early April. But last week, just when it seemed the lender’s streak of bad luck with HFZ might never end, a New York judge ruled that it could go after Meir for $18.5 million.
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HFZ and Feldman have fielded several lawsuits of their own from frustrated business partners claiming they were owed money.
There are rumors of developers looking to take over a struggling $2 billion condo project dubbed the XI, where one of the investors sued HFZ for about $10 million that it claims the company was supposed to distribute to but instead kept for itself. The CIM Group has also foreclosed on and taken over four of HFZ’s condo buildings.
Feldman s business was even sued by the owner of a storage facility he used over unpaid bills. When the owner, Nir Shuminer, threatened to sell off the items inside the storage units, Feldman blamed Meir for not handling the bills. Feldman s belongings were sold at auction weeks later.
HFZ founder Ziel Feldman and Nir Meir (iStock, HFZ/Illustration by Kevin Rebong for The Real Deal)
UPDATED, April 7, 2021, 6:00 p.m.: HFZ Capital Group’s Ziel Feldman says his former partner Nir Meir used their development firm’s bank account as a “personal piggy-bank” to bankroll his lavish lifestyle.
HFZ accused Meir of stealing $15 million via fraudulent credit card reimbursements and wire transfers, in a lawsuit filed April 6 in Suffolk County. The suit claimed Meir lived “well above his means” on HFZ’s dime and seeks $43 million in damages. Meir’s attorney described the allegations as a “desperate, last-ditch attempt” to pressure Meir and said the claims were without merit.