THE BLACK HAND FORUM

[b][u]Who is John Mingione, Nir Meir’s alleged co-conspirator?[/u][/b]

Omnibuild Construction CEO indicted over allegedly false business documents



FEB 11, 2024, 7:00 AM

By Orion Jones

In the rough-and-tumble world of Manhattan highrise construction, John Mingione has found himself in a high-profile legal scrape.



The 54 year-old CEO of mid-sized Omnibuild Construction was indicted Wednesday, accused of falsifying business records and conspiring to commit felony theft at a luxury condo development formerly known as the XI, now called One High Line, at 76 11th Avenue in West Chelsea.





Mingione pleaded not guilty following a three-year investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg into possible illegality at the XI project, the ultra-luxury condo development that dealt the death blow to HFZ Capital Group.



“We absolutely maintain our innocence,” said Josh Vlasto, an Omnibuild spokesperson. The construction management firm was indicted alongside Mingione as a defendant in the case, although Omnibuild and Mingione were not accused of profiting from the alleged theft.



“Even though Omnibuild is in the same indictment as HFZ, three counts of that indictment allege that HFZ stole from Omnibuild and others,” Vlasto said. “This is in addition to the three other indictments charging HFZ alone.”



After entering his plea, Mingione was greeted in the hallways of the Manhattan criminal courthouse by an enthusiastic throng of laborers, one of whom wore an Omnibuild polo shirt.



“Let’s go home, John,” one supporter said, before exchanging high-fives. The supporters had arrived at the courthouse in the morning, and returned in the afternoon for his court appearance.



Mingione, who maintains a relatively high public profile, has been interviewed by numerous media outlets. And he didn’t shy away from using his media training following his indictment.



“I want to thank my family, friends and colleagues at Omnibuild for their support and dedication,” Mingione told The Real Deal. “I am so proud of the incredible company we have built together and know that the team will continue to thrive, working hard with our long standing customers, partners and subcontractors.”





The CEO’s alleged co-conspirator was Nir Meir, the embattled former HFZ executive who is accused of having illegally moved money between construction projects in an effort to cover financial shortfalls.



“Champagne taste and beer pockets,” is how Mingione described Meir and HFZ in 2020, after Omnibuild had left the project, disgruntled over poor financial management.



“It doesn’t work,” Mignione said at the time. “Something’s got to give.”



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One thing that gave, according to prosecutors, was Mingione.



Facing a $37 million shortfall on the XI project owed to Omnibuild and its subcontractors, Mingione is accused of signing financial documents with inflated subcontractor costs, and of telling a subcontractor to go along with the scheme in order to get paid.



“Besides fighting for owners, he would fight for the subs,” Gandolfo Schiavone, an HVAC subcontractor who worked on the XI, said of Mingione. “The reason why most of the subs that were on that job would go to hell and back for the guy is because he would fight for them.”



Omnibuild placed a $100 million lien on the XI project, citing payment shortfalls by HFZ. The lien was discontinued once a new lender came onto the project, which was completed by developers Steve Witkoff and Len Blavatnik. Omnibuild maintains that it lost millions of dollars on the XI.



Mingione launched his firm in 2007, according to the Omnibuild’s website. In 2010, it began a partnership with Cava Construction, founded by Carmine Della Cava, the driver for the boss of the Genovese crime syndicate in the mid-1980s, when the mafia’s presence in Manhattan’s construction industry was pervasive.



Omnibuild put Della Cava into retirement when it bought the construction firm in 2015.





Today, Omnibuild appears to be on the rise, with Mingione and co-CEO Peter Serpico named among the industry’s most powerful players in 2023.



Still, Mingione’s construction firm has coped with setbacks along the way. Its website lists one of its projects as 644 East 14th Street in the East Village, where neighbors have blamed developer Madison Capital Realty for the displacement of 17 families from an adjacent rent-stabilized building that was deemed unsafe.



Madison Capital claims the damage to the building next door predated its 200,000-square-foot construction project. Omnibuild is not a party to numerous lawsuits launched over the project.



But Mingione has had other legal troubles. Before he founded Omnibuild, Mingione was a member of the city’s carpenters union. In 2002, he pleaded not guilty in a conspiracy case brought by Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Mingione was convicted for a scheme that allowed nonunion contractors onto union job sites, and deprived the carpenters union of $1 million in retirement contributions.

With this construction fraud case coming up has there been any movement on the Camuso case? The indictments dropped over a year ago and have not heard anything else

Thanks for posting

*** John Simonlacaj was an HFZ exec who was convicted of taking bribes from Andrew Campos and CWC Contracting including bribes on the XI project referenced in the inclement.

*** while not charged, I believe that Omnibuild co-CEO Peter Serpico is related to Louis Filipelli, so makes sense that Omnibuild would have CWC as a sub on job.


[u]NYC developer Nir Meir facing charges as accomplices arraigned in $86M fraud scheme: DA[/u]

Shant Shahrigian and Ellen Moynihan

February 7, 2024 at 8:00 p.m.

Developer Nir Meir, who dreamed of leaving his mark on the Manhattan skyline, is now facing serious jail time after authorities accused him Wednesday of running a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme.

Meir — whose luxury real-estate company HFZ Capital Group collapsed amid plans to build $2 billion luxury towers near the High Line — was set to be extradited to New York after being arrested in Miami earlier this week.

Four of Meir’s alleged accomplices were arraigned Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Roy Galifi, John Mingione and Kevin Stewart — executives with a construction company that worked with Meir — were accused of grand larceny, conspiracy and criminal possession of stolen property and falsifying business records, charges they denied.

Meir’s colleague Anthony Marrone was hit with the same charges and pleaded not guilty.

Meir, 49, is accused of orchestrating schemes that ripped off $86 million from investors, contractors and the city, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.


An ambitious project to build a mega-development near the High Line allegedly warped into a hotbed of fraud and theft under Meir’s leadership of HFZ, where he was the managing director.

He allegedly used funds intended for the project covering a whole square block of Chelsea — from W. 17th to W. 18th Sts. and 10th to 11th Aves. — to shore up HFZ’s other struggling projects. Meir and his accomplices hid the fraud through phony invoices and forged bank statements, prosecutors said.

In all, $37 million was allegedly stolen as the project reportedly went into foreclosure in 2021. Other developers took over and opened it as One High Line last year.


Similar schemes played out involving projects from Midtown to San Francisco, according to Bragg’s office.

The instant indictments are the result of a three-year joint investigation conducted by the New York County District Attorney's Office (DANY) and the New York State Police Special Investigations Unit into criminal activity committed by HFZ CAPITAL GROUP LLC, its subsidiary HFZ REALESTATE DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATES LLC.

All told, the frauds entailed over $86 million in stolen funds, prosecutors said. That included $15 million in city property taxes that allegedly went unpaid.

Meir was reportedly arrested at a swanky Miami hotel on Monday.


It marked a stunning fall from grace for a man who’d stood out for his aggressive approach in the city’s cutthroat real-estate business, according to Curbed.

“These indictments depict allegations of widespread fraud within the real estate industry primarily spearheaded by one man: Nir Meir,” Bragg said in a statement.

Along with the six men, HFZ and an affiliate plus the construction company, Omnibuild, were hit with charges. The businesses pleaded not guilty.

“Even though Omnibuild is in the same indictment as HFZ, three counts of that indictment allege that HFZ stole from Omnibuild and others,” an Omnibuild spokesperson said in a statement.

“This is in addition to the three other indictments charging HFZ alone. We reiterate that Omnibuild is a victim of, and not acting in concert with, HFZ.”

The construction company previously filed a lien against HFZ saying it was owed $100 million in unpaid bills, according to The Real Deal.


Following Wednesday’s arraignments, Stewart, 48, was released without bail, Galifi, 62, paid $100,000 bail, Mingione, 54, coughed up $500,000 to be freed and Marrone’s wife promised to pay his $300,000 bail.

An additional defendant, former HFZ project manager Louis Della-Peruta, 69, was expected to surrender to authorities on Thursday.

Neir himself is set to appear in court later this month, prosecutors said.

Mingione's name is in this doc you can see online and a lot of connections to Gambinos: https://ia902707.us.archive.org/17/items/gov.uscourts.nysd.78429/gov.uscourts.nysd.78429.1101.11.pdf

The UBC has always been rotten. That bribery scheme was likely under Michael Rodin's tenure as treasurer - he stepped down after being linked to LCN.

***Omnibuild acquired Cava Construction from Carmine Della Cava a few years ago.

***John Mingione was a former carpenters union official convicted of bribery and current top exec at Omnibuild - https://www.nydailynews.com/2002/03/02/carpenters-union-reps-sentenced-for-bribery/amp/

***HFZ came up during the Campos/CWC case

Prominent N.Y. Developer Arrested on Charges Tied to Vast Fraud Scheme

Nir Meir helped run the firm HFZ Capital Group, which became a major developer of luxury housing but collapsed amid investor lawsuits and foreclosures.

HFZ Capital Group spent $870 million to buy the development site for its most ambitious project, the XI, a pair of twisting glass towers in Manhattan. The project, now renamed One High Line, went into foreclosure before it was completed.

By Matthew Haag, William K. Rashbaum and Jonah E. Bromwich

Feb. 6, 2024

Updated 8:38 p.m. ET

A former executive at a prominent New York City development firm that collapsed amid an avalanche of investor lawsuits and foreclosures was arrested this week and is expected to be charged in connection with a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme, according to several people with knowledge of the case.

The developer, Nir Meir, was taken into custody on Monday at the 1 Hotel South Beach in Miami and was expected to be extradited to New York City on the charges, which were brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, the people said.

Several other people and businesses were expected to be charged in a series of indictments brought by the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg — part of a sprawling web of suspected criminal conduct involving Mr. Meir’s former company, HFZ Capital Group, and its development of a luxury condominium project in Manhattan called the XI.

Those expected to be charged include several people involved with the construction firm Omnibuild, which worked on at least one major HFZ project, including a chief executive at the company, John Mingione, some of the people with knowledge of the matter said.


The indictments are expected to charge that they conspired to steal millions of dollars from investors in the XI by falsifying construction costs from June 2019 until September 2020. Some of the defendants in the case are scheduled to be arraigned as early as Wednesday.

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A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office declined to comment. A representative for Mr. Meir, whose arrest was first reported by Curbed, could not be reached for comment. The charges against Mr. Meir are expected to include tax fraud, falsifying business records and grand larceny, including theft that prosecutors believe continued until late last year.

Charles E. Clayman, a lawyer for HFZ, said the company, which was also expected to be charged, would not comment until it saw the indictments.

A spokesman for Omnibuild said in a statement that the company and the executives who are expected to be charged were innocent and cast them as victims of HFZ.


“The evidence will show that HFZ stole from Omnibuild as it did from many others,” the spokesman, Josh Vlasto, said.

HFZ sought to become a major player in the New York City real estate market, building and acquiring thousands of luxury condominiums in Manhattan.

At the firm, Mr. Meir helped raise millions of dollars from investors, often wealthy foreigners. By 2019, the company managed more than $10 billion in properties, it said.

Nir Meir, a former executive at HFZ, was arrested in Miami and will be extradited to New York City. Mr. Meir helped raise millions of dollars from wealthy investors.Credit...Craig

The company started to crumble after it began to develop its most ambitious project, the XI in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, a pair of twisting glass towers with high-end condos and a luxury hotel. HFZ spent $870 million for the development site, and construction started in 2016, led by Omnibuild.


But before it opened, investors and contractors accused HFZ of missing deadlines for payments and said it owed them millions of dollars. Omnibuild backed out of the project in 2020, claiming that HFZ owed the construction company more than $100 million.

One prominent investor in HFZ, Yoav Harlap of Israel, sued Mr. Meir in 2021, accusing him of refusing to return a nearly $20 million loan and moving around money in personal accounts to avoid repayment.

Mr. Meir, 49, filed for bankruptcy last week in Florida, where he moved after leaving HFZ in late 2020.

The XI project went into foreclosure in 2021, before it was completed, and it was bought by two other developers, who renamed it One High Line. It opened late last year. HFZ lost four other condo buildings in Manhattan in 2021 as well.

HFZ was founded in 2005 by Ziel Feldman, who was not expected to be charged in the scheme, according to people with knowledge of the case. His wife, Helene Feldman, said on Tuesday that the couple had no comment about Mr. Meir’s arrest.

In lawsuits against the firm, Mr. Feldman claimed he handed day-to-day management of HFZ to Mr. Meir and blamed him for misspending its money and causing its downfall.