New York Attorney General Letitia James and New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas today filed a lawsuit against Peak Capital Advisors, LLC (Peak), a real estate development company based in New York City, and its operators – Juan David Gomez, Alex Rabin, Amnay Labou, Michael Lohan, Bryan Anderson, Alex Kaskel, and Alex Mendik – for illegally deregulating at least 159 rent stabilized apartments across 31 buildings in Brooklyn and Queens while deceiving tenants, investors, lenders, and state housing regulators about the true status of these units. With this lawsuit, Attorney General James and HCR are seeking the return of overcharged rents plus treble damages, enforcement of the units’ rent stabilized status, penalties for violations of law, and the appointment of an independent administrator to audit the entire Peak portfolio for illegal activity.
“It is no secret that New York City is already battling an affordable housing crisis, and yet Peak and its operators still chose to line their own pockets at New Yorkers’ expense,” said Attorney General James. “As these bad actors illegally raked in profits, affordable housing in New York grew even more scarce, and that is unacceptable. Let this lawsuit be a warning: when corporate developers and bad landlords try to cheat housing laws, my office will always take aggressive action to stop them.”