The $250,000 scam

A few years ago, I informed International Village unit owners about a $56,500 settlement that the 2013 board of directors under then-president Marvin Tow awarded unit owner Ilan Weiss. You may recall that the settlement came in a lawsuit filed by Mr. Weiss against the association over a highly suspicious action taken by the 2010 board of directors at the urging of then-board member Douglas Meyers – one of the candidates in this month’s board election.

On May 8, 2010, the Doug Meyers board voted to “forgive” a total of $4,100 in past-due maintenance fees on two apartment units that were being purchased in the name of then-board member Edwin Kaufman, Mr. Meyers’ stepfather.  Mr. Kaufman, a retired New York attorney, is well known as a “straw buyer” for Mr. Meyers, who has publicly bragged that he owns 25 apartment units in International Village through various relatives including Mr. Kaufman. The two apartments that were the subject of the May 2010 meeting were S1E, a two-bedroom unit with no mortgage that he purchased for only $38,000 after getting the board to waive $2,500 in past-due maintenance; and  S3R, a jumbo studio also with no mortgage which he picked up for a mere $25,000 after persuading his colleagues on the board to write off $1,600 in delinquent fees. (The sellers were both indigent and desperate, and one was in a nursing home, making them vulnerable to being taken advantage of.)

The questionable 2010 board transaction wasn’t even listed on the posted notice for the meeting, despite the fact that it was the sole purpose of the meeting! Instead, it was added to the agenda at the beginning of the meeting as an “emergency” item. This violated several statutory notice requirements (not to mention conflict-of-interest statutes), since it wasn’t an emergency except in the mind of Mr. Meyers, who stood to profit from cheating the association of $4,100 in past-due maintenance fees so he could pick up two apartments dirt-cheap, preferably without anybody finding out about it.

Adding insult to injury, Mr. Meyers and Mr. Kaufman both refused to identify the buyer for the first 25 minutes of the meeting, despite many requests to do so from owners in attendance. Mr. Meyers initially went so far as to falsely claim that he had “nothing to do with the items,” even though title to one of the two apartments was transferred to Mr. Meyers through a quit-claim deed just four months later.  (The unit remains in Mr. Meyers’ name to this day.)

The motion to approve this dirty deal was made by then-board member Stuart Wolff, who – no surprise – is running on Mr. Meyers’ slate in this month’s Board of Directors election along with Mr. Meyers’ other associate, ex-board member Daniel Coco.

Watch highlights of the meeting HERE. It gets pretty intense as the meeting descends into a near-brawl before security intervenes. (Doug Meyers is the guy with the headband, Edwin Kaufman is the older gentleman with the white shirt and glasses, and Stuart Wolff is the fellow on the right in the green shirt and Army cap.)

This fraudulent transaction soon led to a lawsuit by Mr. Weiss, who as most owners know needs very little provocation to sue the Village. Although Mr. Weiss had pledged to use his lawsuit to restore the $4,100 to the association, he kept every penny of his $56,500 settlement, and the lawsuit also failed to compel Mr. Meyers to reimburse the money to the association, although Mr. Meyers probably could have made the lawsuit go away at any point during the more than two years that it dragged on and saved the association a lot of trouble and expense by simply writing International Village a check for $4,100. But he refused to even consider doing so. Why? Was it ego? Was it greed? Or both? All around, the whole mess was a very raw deal for the association. But it was worse – far worse. In addition to the $56,500 settlement the association paid Mr. Weiss, the lawsuit cost the association and its insurance company about $200,000 in legal fees to defend – for a grand total of over $250,000.

So if Doug Meyers, Stuart Wolff and Daniel Coco come around asking for your vote to put them back on the board again, just say no. Because we definitely don’t need to get scammed all over again.

For honesty and continued progress, please vote for John Labriola, Colbert “Carl” Simmonds and Luis Jimenez.

John Labriola

International Village President