In the world of debt and real estate, it’s difficult to keep things all in the family.
Two lenders are now casting suspicion upon developer Meyer Chetrit’s effort to pay a debt to his late brother. The lenders claim the family payment is Meyer’s attempt to hide his assets as the creditors come after him for hundreds of millions. It’s just one of the many fights the Chetrit family is waging with its lenders over properties.
PincusCo was the first to report on the lawsuits.
Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies and Maverick Financial are trying to claw back money from Meyer, to the tune of $220 million for Mack and $132 million for Maverick.
The two have drawn attention to a legal maneuver involving Meyer and the estate of his late brother, Jacob Chetrit. In June, Meyer filed a court document saying that he owed his brother’s estate $21.7 million. That case also revealed Jacob Chetrit’s net worth when he died in January: $825 million.
Lawyers for Mack Real Estate argued Meyer’s legal maneuver “reeks of fraud.” In a memo filed this week, they claim Meyer’s debt to his brother is an effort to remove assets from his name or allow the estate to claim priority.
Court documents from Meyer and the estate say he owes his brother repayment for loans he received, as well as funding he was meant to invest in their shared transactions.
Mack is the lender behind two Chetrit properties: the Hotel Carter on West 43rd Street and 545 West 37th Street. In an ongoing case, the creditor claims Meyer and other brother Joseph Chetrit owe them $220 million in loans and guarantees.
Maverick already won its $132 million judgment against Meyer and is seeking to enforce it in court. Elliott Joffe, a lawyer for Baron Samson who is representing Meyer in the Maverick case, said attorneys “deny in the strongest terms possible any and all allegations of fraud or wrongdoing.”
That debt in that case arises from loans connected to a Midtown development site where the Chetrit Group once planned to build a 33-story hotel. Maverick seized the site in 2023.
In June, Maverick won a temporary court order preventing Meyer from executing the debt payment to his brother’s estate.
Lawyers for Meyer Chetrit and the estate of Jacob Chetrit did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Elsewhere, Meyer Chetrit is facing allegations of intentional self-dealing and mismanagement in foreclosure suits from lenders.
Read more
Hardball lender Maverick lands construction loan for project
Chetrit lender alleges “intentional self-dealing” in foreclosure case, pushes for receiver
Chetrits mismanaged Williamsburg hotel, lender says in foreclosure suit
