A conflict between the founders of the New York Metropolis-based brokerage Casa Blanca and its traders has landed in court docket.
CEO Hannah Bomze sued two of its traders, Samuel Ben-Avraham and Christian Visdomini, in October over allegations that they’re withholding $1.2 million in commissions owed to her, in line with a movement for abstract judgment filed in New York Supreme Court docket.
Now those self same traders are firing again with their very own lawsuit accusing Bomze and her husband, chief working officer Erez Zarur, of misappropriating the agency’s funds to pay for private bills, similar to luxurious holidays.
Of their criticism, Ben-Avraham and Visdomini accuse Bomze and Zarur of “dishonest and disloyal acts,” together with refusing them entry to the corporate’s financials, investing greater than $900,000 of the agency’s cash into cryptocurrency and producing “phony paperwork to help [Bomze’s] fabricated claims for fee.”
Bomze denied the allegations, describing the lawsuit in an announcement as retaliatory and “stuffed with slander and distractions.” She added that she expects the choose to dismiss the case because it lacks benefit.
“I’ve spent 5 years constructing Casa Blanca into one of many fastest-growing and most revered brokerages in New York,” mentioned Bomze within the assertion. “I’ll proceed to guard the corporate I constructed and the work that made it profitable.”
Jim Kennedy, an legal professional for Ben-Avraham and Visdomini, billed the traders’ case as “easy,” including, “we place confidence in the court docket’s capability to resolve it.”
Court docket paperwork reveal that what started as a authorized motion to gather unpaid commissions has since morphed right into a messy falling out between Casa Blanca’s management and monetary backers.
“Casa Blanca will not be solely at a crossroads, but additionally at a stalemate,” the traders state of their criticism. “By their deliberate and figuring out misconduct, Hannah and Erez are stopping Sam and Chris from defending their pursuits — and people of our traders — within the Firm.”
Contained in the dispute
Bomze and Zarur launched Casa Blanca in 2019, backed by a $1.8 million funding from Ben-Avraham, additionally an early investor in WeWork and Ronnie Fieg’s streetwear model, Kith. The agency, which marketed itself because the “Tinder of actual property” with its app-focused strategy, now has roughly 200 agents.
Within the lawsuit, Ben-Avraham and Visdomini allege Bomze and Zarur didn’t contribute any capital to begin the brokerage, and that they collectively personal 43 p.c of the corporate, whereas Ben-Avraham owns 41 p.c. (Visdomini owns slightly below 3 p.c, whereas the remainder is managed by different traders.)
Bomze claims in her movement that between 2021 and 2025, she earned roughly $2.5 million in commissions from transactions the place she personally represented the client or vendor, although to date, she’d solely obtained about $1.3 million. She alleges that below the phrases of an unbiased dealer settlement, she’s allowed to maintain the entire charges related to these offers.
Nonetheless, Ben-Avraham and Visdomini pushed again on these claims, arguing that Bomze’s compensation settlement, which consists of a wage and 0.5 p.c of the corporate’s commissions, doesn’t embrace a provision about private offers.
The traders additional allege that Bomze created faux paperwork to help her claims, and that even when the dealer settlement existed earlier than her request for fee fee, it was by no means proven to the board. The traders declare Bomze ought to must pay again the commissions she’s already obtained.
“The Firm couldn’t function if one officer obtained one hundred pc of commissions on her personal offers, and no investor would have agreed to fund the enterprise on that foundation,” the criticism states. The board “has by no means mentioned or permitted any addendum or facet settlement offering a private fee entitlement to any Supervisor.”
However Bomze dismissed the traders’ claims, as an alternative arguing that since she “personally procured and closed these transactions,” she’s entitled to the commissions.
“Underneath New York regulation, these commissions belong to me,” Bomze mentioned within the assertion. “I deliberately postponed amassing them and left the cash within the firm for years to help the enterprise, strengthen money move, and gasoline its development.”
Along with the fee dispute, Ben-Avraham and Visdomini additionally accused Bomze and Zarur of “paying tons of of 1000’s of {dollars} in private bills with the Firm’s bank cards.”
Among the many bills had been “high-end restaurant costs, luxurious holidays, costs associated to the Bomzes’ youngsters’s summer season camp, items given to people unrelated to the Firm or its enterprise, and memberships to non-public tennis golf equipment, eating places, and nightclubs in New York Metropolis.” The criticism additionally said that Zarur used $900,000 of the agency’s funds to purchase Bitcoin.
Louis Buckworth, who previously worked with Casa Blanca, allegedly reported his considerations in regards to the alleged misappropriation of funds to Ben-Avraham in July, after he and his spouse met Bomze and Zarur for drinks at Le Bilboquet within the Hamptons following the couple’s dinner on the restaurant.
Buckworth advised Ben-Avraham that Bomze and Zarur paid for his or her whole one-on-one dinner with the company bank card although it was a “purely social (and really costly) dinner,” in line with the criticism.
Ben-Avraham and Visdomini filed their lawsuit after negotiations with Bomze to withdraw her earlier motion broke down, in line with the criticism, which seeks damages associated to what they describe as “egregious acts of betrayal.”
They’re additionally requesting the choose order Bomze and Zarur to supply them entry to the entire firm’s financials, together with “banking statements, associated software program platforms, passwords and logins essential to entry the Firm’s monetary info.”
They’re additionally searching for declaratory judgment stating that Bomze will not be owed any of the $1.2 million in alleged excellent commissions and that she has no proper to maintain the $1.3 million she’s already been paid.
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