The company of slain Brooklyn businessman Menachem Stark
"misappropriated" nearly twice as much money from its accounts as
previously estimated, federal bankruptcy court records show.
More than $3.6 million was taken from accounts through
various customer withdrawals from June 1, 2011, through Dec. 31, 2013, an
attorney for German American Capital Corp., which has a claim in a bankruptcy
case against Stark's real estate firm, South Side House LLC, said in a filing.
The amount of the unauthorized withdrawals from the company
accounts had been estimated at about $1.7 million during about three months,
according to a special trustee appointed after allegations of financial
irregularities surfaced last month. Another account also had a balance about
$200,000 less than expected.
Stark, 39, was abducted by at least two people outside his
Williamsburg office late in the evening of Jan. 2 during a snowstorm. His
partly burned body was found the next day by police in a trash bin at a service
station on Cutter Mill Road in Great Neck.
NYPD detectives have been pursuing a number of leads; they
have found the van used in the abduction and have linked Stark to it through
DNA evidence, a law enforcement official familiar with the case said.
Police have been looking into a number of Stark's
contractors and employees for a motive.
While respected among many in his
Hasidic community, Stark also was labeled by some as a slumlord and had
defaulted on $29 million in mortgages.
It was unclear yesterday if the alleged misappropriations
had anything to do with Stark's death. In addition to the withdrawals, the
accounts had nearly $1.5 million in deposits that weren't reported as required
in the bankruptcy case, court records show.
Jerome Reisman, a Garden City bankruptcy attorney who is not
involved in the case, said the lengthy time period in which the withdrawals and
deposits occurred without creating suspicion raised a question about the way
the company was monitored in the bankruptcy case, which started in 2009.
Police have said they're exploring whether Stark had ties to
criminals.
The official said police have developed a circumstantial case but
don't want to act prematurely.
No comments:
Post a Comment