Wife of Great Neck investor sues husband for half of portfolio’s $115M value

The wife of a Great Neck real estate investor filed suit on Friday claiming her husband is either in contract to sell or just intending to sell 11 properties the complaint values at $114.8 million, and she is seeking 50 percent of the value of the holdings. According to the suit, Liliya Katan and Itzhak Katan were married in 1991 and over the decades, he built up a mid-sized real estate portfolio that included at least 11 properties in Brooklyn.
Liliya filed for divorce in July 2016, and that divorce action is still pending. However, Liliya filed a suit in 2018 to restrain Itzhak from selling or transferring assets, and a judge issued an order in June 2018 affirming the restraint, according to the complaint. This new court action alleges he is violating that order by being in contract or intending to sell properties without notifying Liliya and the judge.

Court filings are the positions of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete. Yitzhak has not yet filed response papers.

According to the complaint, “Plaintiff seeks relief for Defendant’s violation of the June 11, 2018 court order of Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Thomas Rademaker, which enjoined Defendant from transferring and selling Plaintiff’s and Defendant’s assets or properties, including buy not limited to real property, without the consent of Plaintiff and approval of the Court.”

This new suit identifies 11 properties with a total alleged appraised value of more than $114.8 million (most of that, or $100 million, is attributed to 283 4th Avenue, a potential development site in Gowanus), that the complaint says Itzhak intends to sell without the consent of the court. Liliya is seeking a money judgment valued at 50% of each of the assets’ appraised value
The properties are 1658 St. Johns Place, 460 Ralph Avenue, 464 Ralph Avenue, 361 Clifton Place, 642 Lafayette Avenue, 683 Jefferson Avenue, 760 Macon Street, 283-301 4th Avenue, 425 Bainbridge Street, 468 Bainbridge Street and 675 Sackett Street. LINK