Greater than two years after developer Brandon Miller died by suicide, his widow and his enterprise accomplice are nonetheless battling his collectors in courtroom.
In a lawsuit filed in early August, Westchester Hearth Insurance coverage Firm sued Miller’s property, his widow, Candice Miller, and his firm, Actual Property Equities Company, over a $150,000 payout on a mechanic’s lien bond tied to a Harlem improvement. The lawsuit is the most recent to emerge from the tangled net of money owed and troubled actual property offers that Miller left behind.
Authorized filings in Surrogate’s Court docket and state Supreme Court docket present glimpses into Miller’s funds — together with a pointy drop within the steadiness of a brokerage account — within the months main as much as his July 2024 loss of life, and the chaos that adopted. In an affidavit filed in June, his enterprise accomplice Mark Seigel wrote: “To say that his loss of life despatched shockwaves by my life and enterprise could be an understatement.”
Seigel, Miller and Kinsmen Property Group’s Ari Zagdanski have been within the midst of negotiations to show a stalled Nolita life sciences challenge into residences when Miller died. Seigel describes a sequence of lunches the three attended at New York energy spots Fasano’s, Cipriani’s and the Regency, and in Los Angeles, between February and Might 2024 to hash out particulars of the reimagined improvement at 156-166 Bowery Road.
Two weeks after Miller’s loss of life, Seigel once more joined Zagdanski at Fauna in West Hampton “to debate plans for the brand new challenge given Brandon’s loss of life,” based on the affidavit, the place Zagdanski steered bringing Abe and Scott Schnay’s SK Growth into the deal. As they moved forward with the brand new challenge with the Schnays, “it was my understanding that REEC’s demolition obligations beneath the bottom lease could be modified with respect to the brand new challenge,” Seigel wrote.
“So I used to be utterly shocked, when in a while August 5, 2024, I obtained a discover of default for failure to well timed start demolition,” he mentioned within the affidavit.
Zagdanski sued REEC in March 2025, claiming the agency owes greater than $5.3 million in again lease, demolition prices, tax reimbursements and excellent liens on the property. They’re nonetheless battling in courtroom. A yr in the past, then-Mayor Eric Adams introduced town would transfer ahead with a housing challenge at 156-166 Bowery Road with Kinsmen, one among three websites supplied as alternate options to the canceled Elizabeth Road Backyard improvement.
In the meantime, Candice Miller is combating a subpoena in Surrogate’s Court docket from her late husband’s largest personal creditor, BMO Financial institution. The Chicago-based lender prolonged Brandon Miller an unsecured $11.3 million mortgage in January 2024.
Greater than $9 million stays excellent, based on courtroom filings, and BMO is now questioning the authenticity of the UBS brokerage account statements Miller used to acquire the mortgage.
The financial institution alleges that account statements Brandon Miller offered earlier than his loss of life differ dramatically from these Candice Miller later submitted as administrator of his property. For February 2024, Brandon Miller’s assertion confirmed a steadiness of roughly $26 million, whereas the model submitted by Candice Miller mirrored a steadiness of about $482,000.
“These discrepancies increase pink flags and important issues,” BMO mentioned in a submitting, arguing that further information are wanted to find out “whether or not the decedent offered BMO with fraudulent account statements” or “whether or not any funds … had been improperly or fraudulently transferred.”
BMO is in search of further UBS account statements relationship again to September 2023, a request Candice Miller’s attorneys are contesting as “an overbroad timeframe.” Miller’s lawyer, Scott Salant, argues in an affidavit that BMO’s subpoena ought to concentrate on the cash within the accounts from the date of Brandon’s loss of life by July 2025.
An account overview from Candice’s model confirmed a complete of greater than $20 million as late as December 2022. By December 2023, the steadiness was about $400,000, rising to $1.4 million in January 2024 after which beneath $500,000 on the time of the February assertion.
Salant, Seigel and attorneys for BMO Financial institution, Westchester Hearth Insurance coverage Firm and Zagdanski didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
One other REEC property that was in progress on the time of Miller’s loss of life has taken a distinct path. Brandon Miller’s East Village challenge is lastly landing office tenants, after years of issues and delays.
Lender Parkview Monetary brought in GDSNY in January to supervise leasing and improvement administration on the property at 1 St. Mark’s Place, and it’s unclear whether or not REEC or Seigel are nonetheless concerned.
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