Newly revealed testimony by Meyer Chetrit paints a dim image of the household actual property empire that after counted a portfolio valued at nearly $1 billion.
In depositions relationship again to March and April, Meyer detailed how the corporate he co-runs with Joseph Chetrit ran out of funds and supposedly ceased enterprise dealings, Bisnow reported. The deposition was amongst a number of made public final week, in accordance with Crain’s.
Meyer acknowledged that the Chetrit Group’s portfolio was valued at unfavorable $80 million, a far cry from its billion-dollar valuation it sported lower than 4 years in the past. That valuation got here courtesy of calculations on a chunk of paper, Meyer stated within the deposition.
The depositions have been launched as a part of Mack Actual Property Group’s authorized go well with in opposition to the Chetrit brothers. A Mack affiliate alleged the Chetrits defaulted on a $31.5 million mezzanine mortgage secured by the Lodge Carter, at 250 West forty third Avenue. It pursued the pair for warranty agreements, and a $24 million judgment was awarded to the lender in October 2025. The brothers are going through a $7 million judgment to a Mack affiliate in one other case.
Earlier this month, the Mack affiliate stated these judgments, totaling greater than $31 million, “stay wholly unpaid.”
He stated that he went into the workplace to “waste time,” claiming there was no enterprise to be achieved for the corporate and speaking about how an unpaid worker was fetching espresso and pie for him. He additional claimed the corporate was being “dissolved,” although he stated there wasn’t anyone who was truly spearheading such a course of.
To that finish, the Chetrit Group has continued to function as an actual property entity within the months because the depositions. Just some weeks in the past, the corporate secured an $80 million refinancing loan on a warehouse at 57-18 Flushing Avenue in Maspeth, Queens; Maxim Capital Group and SL Inexperienced offered the financing in a three-year deal.
Meyer was deposed not less than twice within the Lodge Carter case. Throughout these depositions, he talked about how certainly one of his brothers, Juda, helped pay the household’s payments earlier than claiming that “no person” was supporting him.
He’s additionally been leaning on his kids to assist pay the payments, claiming to have taken $100,000 from them for residing bills final 12 months.
Meyer stated he owes attorneys, together with attorneys from Rosenberg and Estes, a “couple million.” When requested if he anticipated paying his attorneys, together with Leo Jacobs, who represented him on the deposition, Meyer responded, “with God’s assist,” getting an “amen” on the document from Jacobs.
Meyer stated the Chetrits have additionally not been paying funding advisor Robert Verrone, whose agency, Iron Hound, has labored out debt for the Chetrits. Meyer stated Verrone (known as Barone within the court docket document) is a “buddy” whom Meyer pays “when I’ve it.”
Meyer has additionally borrowed cash from males he is aware of by way of synagogue, telling attorneys he owes them a “couple hundred thousand.”
Joseph was additionally subpoenaed and deposed, however remains to be recovering from a pair of strokes he suffered greater than a 12 months in the past, in addition to hip alternative surgical procedure in February that had a complication.
Meyer was beforehand ordered to pay a $132 million judgment to Maverick Actual Property Companions regarding 255 West thirty fourth Avenue, a stalled and foreclosed-upon lodge property. Late final 12 months, a metropolis marshal garnished Meyer’s pursuits in a number of LLCs to repay that judgment, selling them at auction to Maverick.
The Chetrit Group has additionally been battling lenders over 26 Broadway, a 29-story, Class A workplace tower that was transferred to special servicing, in accordance with Morningstar.
At 500 and 512 Seventh Avenue, the Chetrit Group partnered with Edward Minskoff and Joseph Moinian. However final July, a lender accused the borrower of “intentional self-dealing,” transferring about $1 million of tenant safety deposits to exterior accounts, with about $300,000 transferred to accounts related to different Chetrit initiatives or associates. That case is ongoing, although Meyer stated within the deposition that the corporate had by no means paid hire at 512 Seventh and was “about to offer the keys” over to the lender on the property.
Meyer and Joseph are additionally going through charges of tenant harassment from the workplace of Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg.
Lilah Burke contributed reporting.
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