Longtime Democratic energy dealer Frank Seddio is an alleged “con artist” who used his political affect to assist a businessman defraud buyers of $2 million in money, court docket paperwork cost.
Seddio’s alleged machinations have stymied the abroad buyers’ almost year-long effort to claw again the hundreds of thousands they put into an escrow account as they explored a possible enterprise enterprise with actual property investor Sam Sprei, based on their federal swimsuit filed this month.
It’s one among a number of lawsuits filed in state and federal court docket that the previous Brooklyn Democratic Celebration chairman is dealing with over his ties to Sprei.
“Seddio has a historical past of abusing and manipulating the judicial system, together with by submitting knowingly false sworn statements,” the newest swimsuit from Swiss investor Angelos Metaxas and a New Zealand agency, Pertshire Investments LP, claims.
The Brooklyn Federal Court docket submitting accuses the Dem heavyweight of “partaking in blatant discussion board and decide procuring by way of which he can make the most of his political affect, stemming from his function as the previous chair of the Kings County Democratic Committee, in service of Sprei’s schemes.”
Neither Seddio or Sprei replied to a listing of questions despatched to them.
Lauren Zimmerman, the legal professional representing the 2 aggrieved buyers, mentioned she may see comparable alleged abuses in roughly a half-dozen different circumstances filed towards Sprei — most of which checklist Seddio both as an legal professional or defendant, together with a federal RICO swimsuit filed final spring by stiffed investor David Sofer in Manhattan.
Buyers, like her purchasers, have been requested to deposit funds in an escrow account — managed by an allegedly unbiased third occasion, escrow agent Mark David Graubard — to show that they had sufficient money to shut a possible deal together with a signed settlement that they might get the cash again anytime, the swimsuit states.
Escrow brokers have particular fiduciary obligations to depositors, and are sure to comply with escrow agreements.
However when the buyers determined that the deal was not for them and requested their money again, delays and excuses allegedly flowed from Graubard — even when attorneys merely requested to verify he nonetheless had the $2 million, based on emails filed in state court docket.
At one level, Graubard seems to have despatched a quantity confirming a wire switch, however the funds have been by no means despatched, the court docket paperwork state.
Graubard and Sprei then allegedly supplied the buyers a conditional launch of the escrow cash in the event that they agreed to not file swimsuit, prompting them to report the ostensible theft to police, based on the swimsuit.
Seddio, in the meantime, allegedly filed “a totally bogus motion in Kings County Supreme Court docket” on behalf of Sprei, demanding a restraining order to dam its return, based on the lawsuit.
As a substitute of making an attempt to get the case tossed, Zimmerman and her agency went to court docket, and for a second, they appeared to have a decide sympathetic to their purchasers’ trigger.
“Why aren’t we listening to something about the place the cash is,” mentioned decide Steven Mostofsky throughout a July listening to. “Easy query, the place is it?”
“I by no means sanctioned anyone in my total authorized profession however that is $2 million {dollars} and you’re placing your shopper in critical, critical bother as a result of he’s holding on to an escrow and nobody is aware of the place it’s,” the decide informed a lawyer related to Graubard.
Graubard — who the decide ordered to deposit the funds to the court docket a couple of days earlier — may have simply confirmed up with a test, Mostofsky added.
However Seddio then allegedly bizarrely stepped in to assist rent an legal professional for Graubard — that he knew would pressure the decide to recuse himself, simply minutes earlier than one other listening to over the swimsuit, based on the federal court docket papers.
That’s regardless of Seddio technically being on the alternative aspect of Graubard as he was suing him and the buyers on behalf of Sprei, the court docket paperwork be aware.
However, minutes earlier than the listening to, he had a brand new lawyer with some type of relationship with Mostofsky — a transfer Seddio takes credit score for within the listening to, regardless of technically being on the alternative aspect of Graubard.
The brand new decide has confirmed to be far much less aggressive, with little motion within the case for the reason that summer time, regardless of the still-in-place judicial order to deposit the lacking hundreds of thousands with the court docket, based on the federal submitting.
Zimmerman’s legislation agency, Selendy Homosexual PLLC, says it has ID’ed at the least a half-dozen comparable circumstances involving the identical crew the place “investor cash is being illegally withheld, and Mr. Sprei and his associates have held up the circumstances over the funds’ return,” the legal professional mentioned.
“Notably, Mr. Seddio is usually the legal professional representing Mr. Sprei or his associates,” Zimmerman informed The Put up. “In some situations, Mr. Seddio is even a named defendant.”
Graubard, who can be named within the federal swimsuit, didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The impact of Seddio’s alleged “sham lawsuits…is that it makes the victims’ makes an attempt to defend their rights in court docket so costly and so time consuming that in the end, it might not be price pursuing their misplaced funds,” Zimmerman mentioned.
The aggrieved buyers “beforehand admired American courts’ dedication to the rule of legislation,” however now declare that the expertise has turned them chilly to the American court docket system.
“Defendants’ seeming means to get away with a heist of $2 million in broad daylight, by way of clear lies and abuses of authorized course of, makes a mockery of these beliefs. It have to be stopped.”
