Mark Nussbaum, a disgraced Manhattan legal professional and actual property fixer, mentioned in new authorized filings that he diverted $336 million from his legislation agency’s escrow shoppers to actual property investor Mendel Steiner between 2022 and 2025.
The filings reveal the internal workings of Nussbaum and Steiner’s alleged Ponzi scheme, the place some collectors had been supplied “fictitious funding alternatives relating to supposed proof of funds transactions or purchases of actual property that didn’t actually exist,” mentioned Nussbaum.
“Phony emails, escrow agreements, and deal documentation had been used; non-existent third-parties in whose names the offers had been supposedly being performed had been invented,” the filings state.
Nussbaum mentioned that the majority of his escrow shoppers, who are actually collectors of Nussbaum’s property, had been launched to him by Steiner, who died by suicide at a resort in Manhattan in January 2025 because the alleged scheme was about to spill into public view. Nussbaum Lowinger shut down days later and lawsuits began piling up from escrow shoppers demanding their a refund.
Shelden Eisenberger, the lawyer dealing with the liquidation course of — often known as task for the good thing about collectors — of Nussbaum’s former legislation companies, Nussbaum Lowinger and Mark J Nussbaum & Associates, is zeroing in on the transfers to Steiner’s household in an try and recoup the lots of of thousands and thousands owed to Nussbaum’s collectors.
The brand new filings paint the clearest image thus far of the cash stream between Nussbaum and Steiner and his household. Nussbaum mentioned he straight transferred about $24 million to Steiner or to firms managed by members of his household.
Along with direct transfers, Nussbaum transferred escrow cash to Steiner’s firms Aven Realty and Actual Inexperienced Administration. These firms then transferred no less than $68 million to firms managed by Steiner’s father, brother and spouse, in accordance with Eisenberger.
To compensate Nussbaum for his position within the scheme, Aven Realty and Actual Inexperienced despatched $104 million, in accordance with Eisenberger’s affirmation.
Eisenberger mentioned he doesn’t but have entry to all of Aven Realty and Actual Inexperienced’s books and data. However his authorized workforce has been capable of doc some transfers.
This contains $4.3 million to DS Lending, an organization owned by Steiner’s spouse Dini Endzweig Steiner; $361,500 to Olivii, a clothes firm owned by Dini; $6.4 million to 365 twelfth Avenue LLC, an organization owned by Steiner’s brother Naftali; and $6.7 million to 198 President Realty LLC, one other firm owned by Naftali Steiner.
Eisenberger is searching for a brief restraining order to stop Aven Realty or Actual Inexperienced from transferring any belongings.
He notes restoration efforts are on behalf of 52 collectors of Nussbaum’s who misplaced a big amount of cash on account of the alleged ponzi scheme.
“A few of these collectors are themselves threatened with insolvency on account of these losses,” mentioned Eisenberger in his affirmation. “This can be a essential case and that is an pressing matter.”
The filings additionally explicitly lay out how Nussbaum and Steiner’s Ponzi scheme labored. Nussbaum and Steiner pitched three varieties of investments to potential buyers. One supplied shoppers excessive month-to-month charges in change for deposits into Nussbaum Lowinger escrow accounts. The cash was purported to be held in escrow however was as an alternative utilized by Steiner to show lenders or sellers that he was capitalized. The second methodology was via fraudulent actual property purchases, the place Steiner supplied Nussbaum’s shoppers an opportunity to finance his actual property acquisitions or deposit. The third was by providing shoppers an opportunity to deposit cash for a short-time in change for “exorbitant curiosity and charges.” The cash was supposed for use for “present capital” transactions. As an alternative, Nussbaum used the cash to make bridge loans to actual property dealmakers.
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