The 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' star's home has become the epicenter of a fracking fraud drama
In the civil justice system, business fraud crimes are considered particularly evil. But the actors playing the roles of dedicated New York Police Department detectives could not have known that one of their luxury apartments would fall into the hands of a Georgia con artist. This is his story.
The old apartment of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" star Chris Meloni in New York City has become the center of a serious legal drama.
It became a safe haven for an oil and gas scammer who defrauded a partner in Texas, lost a court case there, and long avoided paying a million-dollar restitution until he now has to pay triple that amount.
David Sepiashvili and Natalia Sapir Antoni bought the actor's Midtown Manhattan apartment for $8.15 million eight years ago, the Observer reports. However, on Friday, scorned Russian investor Nikolai Rastorguev filed a lawsuit against the couple in New York state court, claiming Sepiashvili is now playing shell games to avoid losing the huge four-bedroom apartment, located on prime real estate just one block from Carnegie Hall.
The lawsuit claims Sepiashvili recently transferred ownership of the apartment to Antonni to avoid the payment, which now, including interest, is $3 million.
Sepiashvili, who hails from neighboring Georgia, got into serious financial trouble shortly after buying the actor's apartment. According to federal court documents obtained by The Daily Beast, he received $800,000 in July 2016 from Rastorguev in exchange for shares in an oil and gas venture called the Austin Cholk Development Project.
Harper Estes, a Texas attorney who acts as a private judge in resolving legal issues in arbitration, tried the case for federal court and found it to be a "common fraudulent scheme" in 2021.
But he also called it "a rare case that supports a claim of civil conspiracy."
"Knowledge of the oil and gas industry or the use of brokerage firms does not justify in any way at all the use of other people's funds under false pretenses and the use of those funds for other purposes," he wrote.
The arbitrator also noted another thing: the scheme involved Level One Advisors and another person with a similar name, David A. Sepiashvili. This entanglement points to a New York Republican politician who is the elected leader of the Republican business circle in Brooklyn and formerly served on the city's election commission. A second Sepishvili, this time with an "s," describes himself in his LinkedIn profile as the founder and president of Level One, notes the company's involvement in the Austin Cholk project and calls it "an unusual oil and gas project." Calls, messages and social media messages to this person with a similar name went unanswered Monday.
However, it appears the money was never paid. When a year passed, the Russian followed that up in 2022 by filing a lawsuit against both men in Brooklyn and quickly getting a judgment.
The Russian turns to this third attempt by filing suit in Manhattan state court, and tries to get the judge to intervene to prevent the first Sepiashvili from changing the ownership status of the apartment and order its immediate sale to pay off the debt.
Sepiashvili declined to comment on his long-standing legal troubles, referring to his disgruntled business partner Rastorguev as someone associated with certain "bad people in Russia."
“He’s a scoundrel,” said Sepiashvili on Monday.
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