Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Report: East Village landlord Raphael Toledano allegedly misrepresented himself as a lawyer

The Real Deal has published an investigative article about new East Village landlord Raphael Toledano, and how he allegedly misrepresented himself as a lawyer.

According to the article:

In the summer of 2014, a New York landlord with a modest portfolio received a letter from a certain Raphael Toledano, Esq. In the letter, Toledano allegedly identified himself as belonging to Truman & Wildes LLP, a Park Avenue law firm. He claimed to be representing real estate investor Josh Zegen in a 1031 exchange, and assured the landlord that his client was interested in one of his buildings and would “pay above market value” for it.

The issue, however, is that Truman & Wildes LLP is bogus. It is not a licensed law firm in the tri-state area, and isn’t even a registered entity in Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey or New York. Its website, which was taken down shortly after The Real Deal began making inquiries, appears to be a basic web template with language lifted verbatim from legitimate law firms. Misrepresenting oneself as a lawyer is illegal.

For his part, Toledano, a former broker and now a prominent local real estate investor, denies any connection with the law firm. But property records and interviews with his former employees, business associates and industry players indicate otherwise.

In compiling nearly a 20-building portfolio, the majority of them in the East Village, the 25-year-old Toledano "has been peppered with allegations of cheating his partners and harassing his tenants," as The Real Deal put it.

To date, rent-stabilized tenants at 444 E. 13th St. have filed suit against him for alleged harassment. In addition, in August, Aaron Jungreis, one of the city's elite multifamily brokers, sued Toledano, "claiming he was squeezed out of a $100 million deal" to acquire 16 East Village buildings. (That suit was later settled.)

In addition, the landlord of Toledano's Flatiron office reportedly filed suit against him for failing to pay rent.

As for multiple identifications, City Limits noted this in an article about Toledano and 444 E. 13th St. back in September:

Curiously, there are numerous websites with similar URLs purporting to have been created by Raphael Toledanos across the country that fill up Google search results for his name. One Raphael Toledano is "a fervent traveler from the incredible state of Chicago," another is a "19-year-old boy from Ohio who wants to become an internationally recognized soccer player," and still another is "an Assistant Principal in one of the reputed schools of Rhode Island." Each of these sites was created on January 28, 2015 according to registration information on whois.net.

The last post on each of the sites is Feb. 24.

Toledano and Brook Hill closed on the 16-building East Village portfolio for $97 million back in the fall.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Claim: Landlord of 444 E. 13th St. threatened 'to drop dynamite on the building'

Reader report: Large portfolio of East Village buildings ready to change hands

Report: State investigating East Village landlord Raphael Toledano

Report: Uncle suing nephew broker Raphael Toledano over $100 million East Village deal

Report: Raphael Toledano completes purchase of 16-building East Village portfolio

More about alleged harassment and landlord visits via Brook Hill Properties

Brook Hill Properties launches chocolate offensive

In op-ed, Raphael Toledano says that he wants 'to make the East Village a better place'

15 comments:

afbp said...

i'm begging :)----please stop posting his photo ! (makes me cringe--you can 'see' a person with no boundaries/filters)

Anonymous said...

Next you'll be telling us he also wasn't a partner in the Oh Snap I Dint law firm.

JM said...

Why is he not arrested yet? Does it have anything to do with being rich? Just wondering.

Anonymous said...

I wonder what a bunch of shrinks would have to say about his mental state?

Scuba Diva said...

Being rich can definitely keep you out of jail.

Doug said...

What is the point of the bogus websites? They're so clearly fake. Really -- what's he trying to accomplish?

Anonymous said...

This appears to be someone doing everything and anything he can to become a billionaire as fast as possible. Nothing is too shady or possibly illegal to reach this goal. The reality is this guy is not smart enough to get away with it long enough and what mini empire he has built will get gobbled up by the bigger players while he is doing time.

Anonymous said...

Looks like he hired some offshore, fly by night, "SEO" operation to improve his internet presence. LOL. Next thing he is going to tell us that Raphael Toledano is the finest integrity source of Bitcoin online in the world today.

Anonymous said...

Wack job, definitely. Should be arrested and prosecuted, IMO. And yes, PLEASE stop using his photo, even though I think his disgusting smirk is an excellent snapshot of his [lack of] character.

Anonymous said...

I'm guessing those "bogus" websites are templates or placeholder websites provided by whatever company he registered the domains from. It takes the name of whoever registers them and inserts it into some text about a person. The text itself isn't suspicious. The websites were likely just placeholders so no one else registered them. Note that they cover a .net, .info, and a wordpress domain.

Giovanni said...

Those Raphael Toledano websites are designed to knock any negative articles about Raphael Toledano off the first page of Google and other search engines. Raphael Toledano has so much bad press now it is probably harming Raphael Toledano's business interests, but there's no way Raphael Toledano can fool Google or compete with real news sites with stories about Raphael Toledano, including EV Grieve which always ranks on top of many each terms, including Raphael Toledano. Keep up the good work on Raphael Toledano Grieve, thet creepy picture of Raphael Toledano is enough reason to expose the truth about this Raphael Toledano.

#RaphaelToledano #RaphaelToledanoEastVillage

Anonymous said...

If these fake Raphael Toledano websites were created to do damage control they're not working. However, by clicking on any of the 3 fake links above you might be helping him out, so let's not give him the satisfaction.

Anonymous said...

His face - please, no mas, no mas!

About his activities: I hope he becomes better acquainted with the law - from the defendant's chair.

Anonymous said...

Post this picture!! It makes me trust him so much!! Shiny suits really say 'legitimate businessman'.

Pic:
http://rew-online.com/2015/09/11/brookhill-properties-acquires-97m-east-village-portfolio/

Anonymous said...

He looks crazy on that photo,