Christopher Peak Photo
Another Greer-controlled rental property.
Lawyers argue they now have enough evidence to wrest control of nearly 50 rental properties in the Edgewood neighborhood from Rabbi Daniel Greer as payback for the tens of millions of dollars owed to a former yeshiva student who accused the rabbi of molesting him.
The attorneys represent Eliyahu Mirlis, now a New Jersey resident who convinced a federal jury in 2017 that Greer sexually assaulted him for three years at the Yeshiva of New Haven. They have have filed a new federal lawsuit to try to collect on the $21.7 million verdict.
They’re doing that by going after five nonprofits controlled by Greer that collectively own nearly 50 rental properties, primarily concentrated on Elm, Norton, Pendleton and Ellsworth Streets.
“The Plaintiff seeks to pierce the corporate veil of Defendants,” Matthew Beatman, Mirlis’s collections attorney, wrote in the complaint. “[T]he Enterprise, solely controlled by [Daniel] Greer, operates for the purpose of hindering, delaying, and frustrating the collection of [Mirlis’s] Judgment.”
Local officials are watching the case, wondering what its outcome will mean for the hundreds of tenants who currently live in Greer’s buildings, where maintenance issues are already piling up with sewage backups, rotting staircases, buckling walls, flaking lead paint, felled trees and other issues that the landlord has taken months to fix.
Edgewood Alder Evette Hamilton said she planned to make rounds to check in with tenants.
“I’m not even waiting for anyone to complain to me. I’m going to reach out to residents to make sure their rights are protected,” she said. “I’m saddened by this whole thing, for my residents and for the people that this happened against. You expect better from folks, especially from the people in high standing that are supposed to be leaders in the community. I can’t undo anything that happened to that young man, but I will make sure to work with residents so that they don’t lose out on their homes on the part of Rabbi Greer.”
Walled Off?
Rabbi Daniel Greer after his arrest, with his attorney and bail bondsman.
The latest suit names five companies: Edgewood Elm Housing, Inc.; F.O.H., Inc.; Edgewood Village, Inc.; Edgewood Corners, Inc.; and Yedidei Hagan, Inc., which were entirely controlled by Greer as their president and director.
Mirlis had previously sued those companies as part of the main civil lawsuit against Greer, claiming that they were liable for allowing Greer to allegedly molest him at seven different addresses. But just before the trial began, Mirlis removed them as defendants.
Greer has consistently argued that those nonprofits are separate institutions that should be shielded from the suit against him and the yeshiva.
This latest suit gives Mirlis another shot at the millions of dollars in assets and cash that the companies possess. Along with the yeshiva, the rabbi’s home and two pieces of undeveloped land, the four dozen properties were cumulatively appraised by the city at around $13.5 million.
Greer also faces criminal charges for the alleged sexual assault, after police said that Mirlis accurately described details of Greer’s naked body. He remains out on bond as lawyers spar in state court over obtaining evidence that might discredit Mirlis.
Attorney Beatman, who submitted the complaint in federal court last Wednesday, argues that Greer essentially used the five nonprofit companies as his personal piggybank. He said that Greer didn’t even try to keep up the appearance that the companies were walled-off entities.
“Defendants never truly had any separate existence apart or independence from D. Greer and the Yeshiva,” Beatman wrote. “[A]t all relevant times, Defendants and the Yeshiva exhibited a complete lack of corporate formalities; Defendants’ funds were taken … for the personal and other use of D. Greer and S. Greer; Defendants and the Yeshiva had overlapping ownership, officers, director and personnel; Defendants and the Yeshiva used common office space, addresses and phones; Defendants and the Yeshiva exercised no independent business discretion; … Defendants and the Yeshiva paid each other’s debts; and Defendants and the Yeshiva used each other’s property as if it was their own.”
Beatman said that Greer passed rent checks through the companies, before the money ended up in his family’s bank account.
According to the complaint, the tenants pay rent directly to three entities, Edgewood Village, Edgewood Corners and FOH, which after paying for upkeep, funnel most of their income to Edgewood Elm Housing, which maintained $800,000 in cash in 2016, and Yedidei Hagan, which maintained another $100,000 in cash in 2016.
From there, Beatman said, the money went straight to the Greers and the Yeshiva of New Haven. According to the complaint, Edgewood Elm Housing paid Rabbi Greer’s salary and retirement benefits; Yedidei Hagan transferred money to the Yeshiva, which pays his wife Sarah Greer’s salary and retirement benefits, who’s also being sued separately for stashing cash.
Beatman added that Greer sometimes benefited directly from property sales. In 2014, for instance, Edgewood Village paid $95,000 — a steep discount — to acquire 784 Elm St., a property then appraised at $186,600, to buy out Greer’s ownership stake on the deed.
Meanwhile, Greer, the Yeshiva and the rental companies all shared staff and space.
According to the complaint, the secretary, the bookkeeper and the maintenance staff employed by Edgewood Elm Housing do work for Greer, the Yeshiva and the other companies, and Edgewood Corners owns office space used by the Yeshiva and the other companies — all without any reimbursement.
Beatman questioned Greer about all those business transactions last June. That deposition remains under seal. But just a week after the interview, Greer filed new papers with the Connecticut Secretary of State, replacing and adding directors at four of the companies.
In the complaint, Beatman called that “move an effort to disguise the interrelated nature of the Yeshiva and Defendants and the Enterprise, despite the fact that [Greer] maintained management and control over them.”
In order to get at those companies’ assets, Beatman argues that the nonprofits never had a distinct identity and that Greer used them as instruments to commit fraud or other wrongdoing.
David Grudberg, a lawyer for Rabbi Greer and the Yeshiva of New Haven, declined to comment on the latest action, saying his clients had not yet been served with papers.
830 Elm St., one of Greer’s rental properties.
Beginning in the 1980s, Rabbi Greer oversaw the revival of the neighborhood around his yeshiva at the corner of Norton and Elm streets, renovating neglected historic homes. He advocated for keeping nuisance businesses out of the Whalley Avenue commercial corridor, exposed johns who patronized street prostitutes in the neighborhood, and then in 2007 for launching an armed neighborhood “defense” patrol and then calling in the Guardian Angels for assistance to combat crime.
Over the years, Rabbi Greer also received national attention for his political stands. In the 1970s, he led a successful campaign to force the United States to pressure the Soviet Union into allowing Jewish “refuseniks” to emigrate here and start new, freer lives. Greer has also crusaded against gay rights in Connecticut, and filed suit against Yale University over a requirement that students live in coed dorms.
Previous coverage of this case:
• Why Greer Remains Free, & Victim Unpaid
• Suit: Rabbi Molested, Raped Students
• Greer’s Housing Corporations Added To Sex Abuse Lawsuit
• 2nd Ex-Student Accuses Rabbi Of Sex Assault
• 2nd Rabbi Accuser Details Alleged Abuse
• Rabbi Sexual Abuse Jury Picked
• On Stand, Greer Invokes 5th On Sex Abuse
• Rabbi Seeks To Bar Blogger from Court
• Trial Mines How Victims Process Trauma
• Wife, Secretary Come To Rabbi Greer’s Defense
• Jury Awards $20M In Rabbi Sex Case
• State Investigates Greer Yeshiva’s Licensing
• Rabbi Greer Seeks New Trial
• Affidavit: Scar Gave Rabbi Greer Away
• Rabbi Greer Pleads Not Guilty
• $21M Verdict Upheld; Where’s The $?
• Sex Abuse Victim’s Video Tests Law
• Decline at Greer’s Edgewood “Village”?
• Rabbi’s Wife Sued For Stashing Cash