A company co-founded by Frank Carone, Mayor Adams’ recently departed chief of staff, must pay a prominent New York City real estate firm more than $726,000 to settle a long-running rent debt, a Manhattan judge ruled this week.
The company, Financial Vision Group, is in the health insurance field, and signed a lease in 2019 for an office space in a Manhattan building owned by SL Green, one of the city’s largest commercial landlords. But Financial Vision allegedly stopped paying rent in June 2020 — prompting SL Green to file a lawsuit last year against the company, as first reported by the Daily News.
On Tuesday, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Louis Knock sided with SL Green and ruled that Financial Vision must cough up $726,682, plus interest, to the real estate giant for the unpaid rent.
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Chief of Staff Frank Carone, right, outside City Hall on Nov. 1, 2022. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News)
The decision was not unexpected, as Knock ruled last month that Financial Vision must pay at least $179,000 just to cover “overstay” rent owed between March 2022, when SL Green terminated the lease, and June 2022, when Financial Vision vacated the office space.
Carone said Wednesday that he has no exposure in the SL Green case.
“You are hereby on notice that I have again told you that I have nothing to do with this litigation or entity, and therefore am not interested in your update on the case in the least,” he said in a text message.
Carone, a politically-connected attorney who served as Adams’ confidante for years before becoming his chief of staff, co-founded Financial Vision in 2018 with his then-law partner, Howard Fensterman, and three other individuals, according to incorporation documents reviewed by The News.
The company, which advances money to medical companies waiting on insurance payouts in exchange for a fee, also has ties to Zhan and Robert Petrosyants, a couple of criminally convicted brothers who are close friends with Adams.:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/BIMGJ4JJVVCMRP2Y2MU2JN5LLA.jpg)
Howard Fensterman, center, with Mayor Eric Adams, left, and Frank Carone. (Harbor Group Communications, Inc.)
Carone has said all his private sector assets were divested or placed in a blind trust upon his chief of staff appointment in January 2022, and that he’s had no role in Financial Vision since.
What appears to be Carone’s signature is on the original lease for the company’s 23rd floor office in SL Green’s Sixth Ave. building, according to a copy of the document, which is dated Sept. 3, 2019 and was submitted in court.
But Carone claimed last month that he didn’t sign the lease. On Wednesday, he said he suspects someone fabricated his signature.
“I have reported the unlawful use of my name and signature to the appropriate authority,” he said. He did not say which authority he contacted about the matter.
A rep for SL Green would not comment on Carone’s remarks about the allegedly fake signature.
Fensterman, who has presented himself in recently filed records in other court cases as an active member of Financial Vision, did not return a request for comment Wednesday.
Though Financial Vision never offered a response to its lawsuit, SL Green said in court papers last year that the company had claimed it was entitled to a pandemic-related “rent abatement,” a position the real estate firm disputed.
Since leaving City Hall, Carone has launched Oaktree Solutions, a consulting firm that aims to have clients in politics and other fields. He is also expected to lead Adams’ 2025 reelection campaign.
Carone told Politico last month that among the potential clients Oaktree Solutions is in talks with are companies vying for a license to run a casino in the city. Carone did not name those companies, but SL Green is among a handful of entities that are pursuing bids for the lucrative casino license.
Source: nydailynews.com
