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City Wants to Shut Illegal Hotel Owned by Ex-Porn Mogul Tied to Rep. Grimm

By James Fanelli | January 23, 2015 11:16am
 The city is trying to shut down an illegal hotel operation in this building at the corner of West 41st Street and Ninth Avenue.
The city is trying to shut down an illegal hotel operation in this building at the corner of West 41st Street and Ninth Avenue.
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DNAinfo New York/James Fanelli

HELL’S KITCHEN — The city wants to shut down what it claims is an illegal hotel being run out of a 14-story West Side apartment building by a former porn mogul who has ties to disgraced ex-Rep. Michael Grimm.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the city accuses Ben Zion Suky, the owner of 440 West 41st St., of running the illegal short-stay operation out of the residential building, racking up scores of fire and building code violations for conditions that endanger guests.

The city is asking a judge to shutter the business, citing state laws that prohibit residential units from being rented to tourists and visitors for stays of less than 30 days.

The lawsuit was filed a day after the City Council held a hearing on illegal hotels where councilmembers grilled Airbnb representatives about what they’re doing to curb listings that buck state and city laws.

The lawsuit says tourists can reserve rooms at the building through a company known as Metro Apartments, which maintains two websites  — metroapartmentsnewyork.com and nyapartmenthotels.com — to advertise its services.

One site offers a one-night stay for $128.58 in a studio with a queen-size bed or $220.39 for a one-bedroom suite with two queen-sized beds.

While Metro Apartments doesn’t show its listings on Airbnb.com, they are on travel booking websites like kayak.com and priceline.com.

“Nowhere in any of the aforesaid advertising do defendants inform consumers that the accommodations are illegal and do not meet fire safety standards,” the lawsuit says.

Suky is known as the right-hand man of Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto, a charismatic spiritual leader from Israel who has reportedly counseled Lebron James and other celebrities while maintaining a popular congregation in Manhattan.

Pinto was the subject of a bribery investigation in Israel last year and is expected to plead guilty as part of a deal with the state, according to the Jerusalem Post

Grimm once had a close relationship with Pinto and tapped into the rabbi’s congregation for campaign fundraising. Ofer Biton, another former close associate of Pinto, also helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Grimm’s congressional run. Biton later pleaded guilty to federal charges of visa fraud.

Suky has several real estate properties in the city and has been the target of lawsuits and foreclosures, including on an Upper East Side condo he co-owned with Pinto’s wife.

The Jewish Daily Forward reported in 2011 that Suky was once the principal of Direct Distributors LLC, an X-rated enterprise that peddled pornographic DVDs.

Suky did not return a request for comment.