Mayor de Blasio got mortgages on his Park Slope homes from a bank founded by the brother of men who received $173 million from the city in a controversial real estate deal, The Daily News has learned.
The bank de Blasio secured the mortgages from is Wall Street Mortgage Bankers, which operates under the name Power Express Mortgage Bankers, city Finance Department records show.
The bank’s treasurer, secretary, former president and founder is Abraham Podolsky, public records and multiple sources revealed.
Abraham is the brother of slumlords Jay and Stuart Podolsky, who earlier this year sold 17 buildings to the city for $173 million. Abraham did not respond to several messages.
The $173 million deal — ostensibly aimed at providing affordable housing for poor New Yorkers — came under intense scrutiny for months from critics who pointed to Jay and Stuart’s criminal past, a federal probe into their real estate empire and wildly divergent appraisals on the land they ultimately sold to the city.
Abraham’s company’s loans to de Blasio as well as his family connections are now renewing concerns about potential conflicts of interest surrounding the deal.
Fordham University political science professor Christina Greer said she wants to see the web of connections investigated.
“Something doesn’t smell right. I’m not willing to say something is wrong just yet,” she said. “…This is worth an inquiry.”
City Comptroller Scott Stringer is probing appraisals of the Podolsky properties — one city appraisal valued the 17 properties as low as $49.67 million. In April, he demanded de Blasio’s administration make them available through a subpoena.
Stringer declined to comment on that investigation, de Blasio’s mortgages and whether those mortgages potentially could have given Jay and Stuart Podolsky any leverage during negotiations.
Mayor de Blasio’s hand-picked Department of Investigation Commissioner Margaret Garnett refused to comment as well.
Frank Carone’s prominent role in the land deal — he served as Jay and Stuart Podolsky’s attorney — has also raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest. Carone, the chief attorney of the Brooklyn Democratic Party and a partner at the politically-connected Abrams Fensterman law firm, has donated generously to de Blasio. As of this month, Carone and his family have funneled at least $21,500 to the mayor and his political causes over the years.
Carone also worked for Power Express Mortgage Bankers.
Wall Street Mortgage and Abrams Fensterman, both of which once shared the same Long Island address, also once employed Brooklyn Democratic Party leader Frank Seddio. He worked at Wall Street Mortgage from 2007 to 2008 and began work at Abrams Fensterman in 2011, but is no longer employed there.
Seddio, who works closely with Carone, has been a political ally of de Blasio’s for years.
Wall Street Mortgage President Keith Kantrowitz said Seddio, Carone and Abraham Podolsky were not involved in de Blasio’s mortgages. He described Podolsky as “semi-retired.”
George Arzt, a spokesman for Jay and Stuart Podolsky, Carone and the Brooklyn Democrats, said Jay and Stuart are on “speaking terms” with Abraham, but that they “parted ways in business” in the 1980’s.
“Frank Carone had nothing to do with Wall Street Mortgage since 2008. He does not know, nor did he ever know anything about any mortgage the mayor may have received, nor did Jay or Stuart Podolsky,” Arzt added. He also noted that Seddio had no knowledge of the deal.
Team de Blasio tried to frame the web of relationships as above board.
“The only thing that factored into this deal was the best interest of our homeless New Yorkers,” de Blasio spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein said. “Nothing else played a role.”
She declined to say whether the mortgages came up in discussions between the city, Carone and Jay and Stuart Podolsky.
According to public records filed with the city Finance Department, the clapboard rowhouse de Blasio calls home on 11th Street currently carries a $625,000 mortgage from Wall Street Mortgage Bankers. The agreement is dated June 26, 2014 — six months after de Blasio began his first term as mayor. Interest on the loan — which carries monthly payments of $2,983.85 and comes due on July 1, 2044 — was set at 4%, the records show.
The Wall Street Mortgage loan on de Blasio’s second Park Slope property, also on 11th Street, is for $630,500 and comes due in 2042.
Kantrowitz said the mayor was referred to his firm by a mortgage broker, which is listed as First Merchants Inc. in Finance Department Records. He also noted that Abraham Podolsky has not had a relationship with brothers Jay and Stewart for years because of a family dispute in the 1980s.
But two sources with ties to the family who wished to remain anonymous said the three brothers have since mended fences.
Abraham is the older brother. Their late father Zenek had a falling out with him in the 1980’s which culminated in a lawsuit. As family lore has it, Jay and Stuart sided with their father and went on to build their own real estate empire.
Jay and Stuart — whose methods have included renting out squalid rooms overrun with rats, raking in millions of dollars from the city to house the homeless, and allegedly forcing tenants from their apartments through intimidation — continue to own dozens of properties throughout the city.
In the ’80’s, the Manhattan DA’s Office found that they and their father hired “vacaters” to recruit “drug addicts, prostitutes, thieves and other criminals” to make living conditions miserable for tenants.
Then-Manhattan DA Robert Morganthau eventually indicted Jay, Stuart and Zenek, as well as the vacaters. The Podolskys pleaded guilty to more than two dozen felonies. Zenek got 90 days in lockup. His sons each got hit with five years probation and 250 hours of community service.
Abraham has kept a much lower profile over the years. He works out of an Avenue N realty office in Mill Basin, according to people who work there.
His mortgage firm is perhaps best known for its ads, which employ ex-Yankee great Mariano Rivera as a pitchman.
Kantrowitz, who has advertised in the Daily News as well as other newspapers, accompanies the legendary hurler in many of them. Abraham does not.
