Mark Harounian shakes off sister’s fraud claims

9 minutes read

A family saga is one step closer to a finale. Mark Harounian notched a win in his legal battle with the sister who sued him a decade ago.

Mehrnaz Homapour claimed her brother duped her into signing agreements that let him enrich himself off family real estate companies. But a state judge Monday said she failed to demonstrate fraud, deciding several claims in her brother’s favor.

The case, which is headed to trial, provides a look into how disputes arise in families where money is plentiful and agreements are informal.

Mark Harounian is the son of Jacob Harounian, the Iranian investor who made money in the Persian rug business before turning to Manhattan real estate. Mark’s sisters are minority members in family LLCs that Mark manages.

Homapour claimed her brother took funds from the companies to support his own investments, as well as allegedly pay for an “outrageously lavish” lifestyle of luxury cars, famous art and “jewelry and rent-free apartments for his mistresses.”

And when her brother asked her to sign documents related to the family business, he told her there was nothing new in the paperwork, Homapour claimed. Instead, those agreements allowed Harounian to compensate himself for his work as manager.

Homapour argued this was fraud. But a judge said that claim doesn’t hold up when Homapour admits she didn’t read or inquire about what she was signing.

“This is putting to bed the scandalous and unsupported claims of fraud and clearing Mark Harounian’s good name,” said Todd Soloway, an attorney for Harounian.

The judge similarly dismissed other efforts by Homapour to get a quick decision to set up a trust for the assets and get her brother removed as a member of the LLCs.

The case will now be sent to trial, where the parties will argue over whether Harounian’s compensation from the companies was reasonable.

Attorneys for Homapour said they were pleased the court is bringing those claims about the compensation to trial and also ordered Harounian to give a full accounting of company finances.

“This decision is another significantly positive step towards our client ultimately recovering the tens of millions of dollars Mark wrongfully took from the family companies,” Homapour’s attorneys, Terrence Oved, Darren Oved and Glen Lenihan at Oved & Oved LLP, said in a statement.

The case is just one battle in the family’s civil war. Patriarch Jacob Harounian has sued Mark for similar claims in a case that is still ongoing. A company Mark manages won its own case against Jacob in 2023, claiming that he wired himself $5 million from a company account.