By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
BATTERY PARK CITY — Developer Yair Levy is banned from selling real estate in New York State after a judge found that he defrauded condo owners at the troubled Rector Square building in Battery Park City.
The state Attorney General's office sued Levy last year, alleging that he raided the 303-unit building's reserve fund, which is earmarked for maintenance and repairs, and used $7.4 million to pay his personal credit card bills and write checks to relatives.
Levy also failed to make ground lease payments to the Battery Park City Authority and abandoned the building midway through major renovations in 2008, leaving residents without heat and hot water, the attorney general's office said.
The State Supreme Court judgment, announced Wednesday, requires Levy to repay the $7.4 million to the 225 Rector Place building and fined him an additional $360,000 in civil penalties. The ruling also permanently bars Levy from advertising or selling real estate in New York.
"The State of New York has no tolerance for the kind of fraud perpetrated by Yair Levy," Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement Wednesday.
"With today’s judgment, Yair Levy is out of business, and tenants and homebuyers in New York are more secure without this predator in the marketplace."
Levy's lawyer did not immediately return a call for comment.
