Exclusive | How a bathroom pipe fiasco led to allegations of financial fraud at one of NYCs most exclusive co-ops
A fight over a bathroom waste pipe has exploded into allegations of putrid dealings at a storied Manhattan co-op.When Angelo Chan and his husband Frederick Wertheim spent $5.2 million for their home in a fancy Fifth Avenue co-op in 2018, they envisioned having three bathrooms after renovating their 2,500-square-foot unit.But for five years, they’ve been making do with just one bathroom in their lavish spread — all due to a lengthy impasse over a bathroom pipe that has devolved into a vicious court battle and kept the water to the couple’s two other bathrooms turned off.While investigating the pipe issue — namely, the location of a new pipe to drain bathroom waste — their attorney claims to have discovered something far more smelly.Since 2020, the building — 907 Fifth Ave.— has failed to produce audited financial documents, alleges a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court earlier this month.
When pressed to do so, it produced fakes — concealing the fact that the building was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees over the bathroom battle, the lawsuit further alleges.“A lie is a lie,” said Steven Sladkus, the lawyer who is representing Chan and Wertheim.He called the falsification of such documents “one of the gravest injustices I’ve ever had to deal with.”On behalf of the corporation, the two men are suing the building’s board of directors for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.
Their lawsuit seeks damages for breach of fiduciary duty as well as punitive damages, and retroactive accounting from Dec.31, 2019, the last date for which audited financial records exist.“We have suffered a great deal, and what we have experienced in the last five years is just a symptom of much bigger, fundamental issues in relation to this co-op,” said Chan.The co-op is known as one of the city’s most exclusive.
Constructed in 1916, it overlooks Central Park at the corner of East 72nd Street.Martha Stewart maintains a pied-à-terre t...