East Side Real Estate Heir Is Hoarding Fortune, Brother Says

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The heir of a prominent real estate family is hoarding millions in profits from an East Side apartment building as he racks up extensive personal debts, the man's brother alleges in a new lawsuit.

The suit was filed Tuesday by Stephen Perlbinder, scion of a real estate dynasty founded over 100 years ago by his grandfather. Stephen's target is his 78-year-old brother, Mark, who took over as company president 10 years ago following the death of their father.

Stephen's allegations center on 400 East 54th St., a 31-story condo building on First Avenue in Sutton Place, constructed in 1972 and known as The Revere. While Mark and Stephen both own equal shares of the building's parent company, Mark has personally pocketed the proceeds from 10 of the building's most recent home sales, the suit alleges — totaling more than $13 million.

Mark's practice of siphoning "every penny possible out of every deal for his own benefit" has coincided with his own personal financial troubles, the suit claims. In recent years, he has accumulated $7.2 million in federal tax liens, $5.5 million in state tax judgments and has defaulted on his hefty divorce settlements, among other debts.

"As his personal finances have deteriorated in recent years, Mark has turned to using his position as President of Perlbinder Realty, with no one overseeing him, to loot the various family investments for his own benefit," the suit reads.

This week's lawsuit is only the latest legal debacle in which the elderly heir has become embroiled. Perlbinder was also arrested on suspicion of cocaine possession in the Hamptons in 2014, and a separate suit accuses both him and Stephen of failing to pay $2.7 million in shared profits to co-investors in the 54th Street building.

Stephen Perlbinder says his brother's scheming has not been limited to the pocketed profits. In recent years, he has also diverted funds from other family investments toward renovating the Revere's unsold apartments, jacking up their values before they are sold, the suit alleges.

In addition, Mark is accused of racking up millions in tax burdens on the Revere's 64 unsold apartments and transferring sums of money from the condo corporation to obscure entities like "Perlbinder Construction LLC," a firm with no employees that he controls exclusively.

As his brother's behavior worsened, Stephen says their parents revised their estate planning before their deaths, in an effort to prevent Mark from "squandering" the family's investments.

"Mark has for years dominated the family companies and used them as a piggy bank to pay for his personal debts and expenses, including apartments for himself and his girlfriend, expensive cars, and various unexplained payroll and commissions to friends and other associates," Stephen wrote.

The suit seeks a judgment of at least $30 million that would be awarded to the Revere's parent company.

Reached by phone, a representative for Perlbinder Realty declined to comment on the suit.