A guide in search of an $8 million payday on a pair of New York Metropolis leases claims former metropolis official Jesse Hamilton and veteran Cushman & Wakefield dealer Diana Boutross demanded a $250,000 “facet cost” earlier than permitting the offers to maneuver forward.
Staten Island businessman Mazen Dayem is suing Hamilton, Boutross, Cushman & Wakefield and landlords Madison Capital and Salmar Properties, accusing them of orchestrating a scheme to derail his consulting settlement on two metropolis leases at 850 Third Avenue in Brooklyn.
Dayem claims he signed a consulting settlement with the house owners in July 2025 to supervise development and coordinate lease negotiations with the FDNY and Division of Homeless Companies (DHS). The contract allegedly promised him $4 million for every accomplished lease.
However Hamilton, then deputy commissioner of actual property companies on the Division of Citywide Administrative Companies (DCAS), allegedly advised Dayem that the offers would solely proceed if he personally acquired $250,000, the go well with claims. Hamilton allegedly mentioned the FDNY transaction couldn’t transfer ahead until Boutross was concerned regardless of CBRE representing the company, the go well with alleges.
Two weeks later, throughout a walkthrough of the property, Boutross allegedly repeated the demand, telling Dayem she would solely finalize the deal if he paid her and Hamilton $250,000 in money, in accordance with the criticism. After Dayem refused, Boutross allegedly advised him, “You’ll remorse this.”
Hamilton, who resigned from DCAS after a Manhattan grand jury indicted him on a conspiracy cost, couldn’t instantly be reached for remark. Boutross hung up when reached by telephone at her workplace. Representatives for Cushman and the landlords didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
The go well with additionally alleges Boutross, Hamilton and Cushman falsely reported that Dayem had assaulted Boutross and one other dealer throughout the walkthrough, triggering a DCAS investigation that successfully froze him out of the undertaking. The brokerage then labored straight with the house owners to seal the deal, Dayem alleges.
Based on the criticism, the company formally closed the investigation in September 2025, and DCAS despatched him the proposed lease time period sheet. However the landlord continued to work with Boutross and later terminated Dayem’s contract, the go well with claims.
Dayem is in search of $36 million in damages from Hamilton, Boutross and Cushman and $8 million from the house owners.
The case shouldn’t be Dayem’s first memorable courtroom battle. In 2017, he made headlines after suing his father-in-law over what he claimed was an elaborate marketing campaign of psychological torment involving a bushy toupee. Dayem, who mentioned he suffers from an intense worry of the Tasmanian Satan cartoon character, alleged his father-in-law intentionally used a wild grey wig to scare him, in accordance with the New York Post.
In January, he sued his spouse’s uncle, alleging he mismanaged funds at a Brooklyn industrial property they owned collectively. He and his spouse are additionally embroiled in a authorized battle with a Lengthy Island legislation agency over $90,000 the agency alleges it’s owed for Chapter 11 chapter filings involving two restricted legal responsibility firms.
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