Irving Langer, one of many largest residence landlords within the metropolis, is beneath siege from disgruntled companions, lenders and even his bank card firm — who’ve collectively sued for greater than $30 million.
Langer and his firm, Brooklyn-based E&M Associates, at one level owned greater than 4,500 apartments in New York. However lately he’s struggled together with his properties’ finances and complaints from tenants. And he owns lots of his investments by syndications and partnerships which have come beneath stress.
Now a mountain of lawsuits involving totally different properties is piling up, additional fracturing Langer’s actual property empire.
Langer’s lawyer, David Shlansky, mentioned the owner’s enterprise had been impacted by the 2019 hire legislation adjustments and rising rates of interest, after which one lawsuit piled on one other.
“Every one in all these is totally different, all type of somewhat little bit of a pile-up that has some widespread causes available in the market being the wrong way up,” he mentioned. “Every one in all these is determined by its specific information and circumstances.”
In November, for instance, a Manhattan decide awarded one in all Langer’s lenders a $2.8 million judgment for a mortgage that the owner had personally assured.
Aaron Harrow, an Israel-based lender, offered Langer a $1.5 million mortgage in 2019 to buy a gaggle of workplace properties in Mount Arlington, New Jersey. Harrow mentioned Langer didn’t repay the mortgage when it matured and sued in July 2024 to gather on the cash due, which was rising ever bigger with a 24 % default charge.
Langer’s attorneys, nevertheless, questioned whether or not he ever acquired the mortgage proceeds or whether or not they have been paid to a enterprise accomplice, Ariel Fein. (Langer and Fein additionally owned nursing houses in Arizona, which they’d a dispute over.)
“There may be good cause to imagine that Plaintiff could have superior cash, negligently or improperly, to Langer’s former enterprise accomplice, Ariel Fein,” Langer’s lawyer wrote in court docket papers.
Harrow’s lawyer, although, mentioned Langer is liable for repaying the mortgage.
“The observe on this case is a promise to pay. Interval,” he wrote.
Langer, who personally assured the $1.5 million principal, is interesting the decide’s choice.
One other case facilities on a $3.4 million broker’s fee that Langer spent 10 years disputing.
Brokerage Georgia Malone & Firm in early 2024 gained a judgment towards Langer’s E&M for work on a $350 million, 87-building Harlem portfolio Langer purchased in 2013. With curiosity, the judgment totaled $6.7 million.
However by the point Malone got here to gather, the dealer claims Langer began cashing out the properties “thereby depleting all fairness . . . [and] rendering the Judgment Debtors bancrupt and unable to fulfill the Judgment,” in accordance with court docket papers.
Malone mentioned Langer offered a minimum of 59 of the 87 buildings at an $80 million revenue, then dispersed cash to himself and buyers, together with trade heavyweights like Baruch Singer and Abraham Fruchthandler. She mentioned he refinanced the remaining ones, taking out all of the fairness and paying his buyers. And eventually she alleges he offered buildings to affiliated “fronts” for no consideration.
She mentioned he spent extra money on defending the case than the fee he owed.
“Opposite to the Judgment Collectors’ declare that they’re bancrupt, by paying a minimum of $3,700,000.00 in authorized charges defending the Georgia Malone & Firm’s $3,400,000.00 declare by elevating fraudulent and baseless defenses, the Judgment Collectors’ declare of insolvency rings hole and is additional proof of the fraud that they proceed to perpetrate on the Courtroom,” her attorneys wrote.
Malone sued in March final yr asking the court docket to declare the transfers null and void. However final week Langer gained his enchantment difficult the unique $6.7 million judgment. That case was ordered to go to a brand new trial.
Mounting money owed
Langer received his begin within the Seventies investing in New York Metropolis, then expanded to Florida and the Hudson Valley. He typically purchased rent-stabilized buildings and transformed them to market charge, which drew criticism from tenant teams and politicians.
His most high-profile funding could have been the $40 million Gulliver’s Gate vacationer attraction he invested in together with his son in 2016 close to Occasions Sq., which finally went bankrupt.
Whereas the Malone case carries on, Langer’s payments are including up.
In January, the property of Lawrence Rothberg (an investor and lender to Langer) sued him and E&M for $5.7 million in loans and investments the property claims Langer didn’t repay.
In November, lender Stillwater Asset Administration sued Langer over a $4.8 million private assure he signed on an $18 million mortgage backing a New Jersey workplace property that Stillwater took over in September by a foreclosures.
And Langer even has bank card payments piling up.
American Categorical sued him in October and January, claiming he owes almost $238,000 on his private and enterprise Platinum playing cards.
Among the disputes illustrate the advanced nature of Langer’s partnerships.
In Could, Langer was sued for $11.2 million by Eva Silber, whose deceased husband, Harry, offered Langer with a $10 million mortgage collateralized by membership curiosity in properties in Sunny Isles, Florida and 63 Tiffany Place in Brooklyn.
Langer had signed a confession of judgment with the mortgage, however in August he filed a movement to have it thrown out. He claimed that Michelle Fuchs, a lady who had been in a longstanding relationship with Silber’s son, and a enterprise affiliate named Howard Walfish, tricked him into signing the judgment through the use of a phony firm identify utilizing Harry’s initials.
“I now imagine that Ms. Fuchs and Mr. Walfish have been attempting to get me to surrender 63 Tiffany Place to their new firm with them, posing as Eva Silber’s firm,” Langer wrote in court docket papers.
Learn extra
Irving Langer’s E & M owes $3.4M broker’s fee for Harlem portfolio
Multifamily giant Irving Langer racing to refi 3K-unit portfolio
