Detectives have arrested a suspect in connection with the mysterious murder of a Brooklyn landlord, a spokesman for his family Tuesday.
The unidentified man is the “main player” in the brutal killing of 39-year-old Menachem Stark, police sources told the Daily News.
It was not immediately clear whether this man, who sources said “copped” to the grisly crime, was a contractor to whom Stark owed $ 20,000 – and who has been in the sights of detectives for months.
Two associates of the suspect, who were linked to the crime by the minivan in which Stark was abducted, are still being questioned but have not been charged, the sources said.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton did not identify the suspect, but said the pace of their investigation “has accelerated significantly.”
“We’re very pleased with the direction the investigation is now going,” he said.
The revelations raised hopes that after four months of fruitless searching there might finally be justice for the father of seven and his grieving family.
“Today is bittersweet,” said Rabbi David Niederman, who heads the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg. “Bitter because Menachem is no longer with us and he is forever missed, sweet that the law enforcement community has made an arrest in this heinous crime.”
Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) chimed in with praise for the police.
“I have followed this terrible and tragic case from the beginning and applaud the NYPD for their tenacity in pursuing the murder suspects,” said Hikind.
The Hasidic businessman was snatched Jan. 2 outside his Williamsburg office and found dead the next day in a Long Island trash bin. His body had been burned and police later tracked down the van that carried him to his death.
Stark was up to his ears in debt when he died and police suspect his massive money woes may have figured in his murder.
And police have been taking a close look at Stark’s ties to the shady Chicago bank that lent him and his partner Israel Perlmutter $ 7.7 million despite their dodgy credit history.
Later, records revealed that Stark had improperly withdrew $ 3.7 million from his business, South Side Associates, to pay off personal loans.
Stark had borrowed the money to keep a 74-unit Williamsburg property that he co-owned with Perlmutter running during bankruptcy proceedings.
The hard-up landlord was not supposed to use the dough to get out of a hole and bankruptcy court filings revealed that Stark might have cooked the books to “conceal the diversion.”
Stark and Perlmutter defaulted on the S. Fourth St. building’s $ 29 million mortgage in 2009, the records showed. The debt on the building is now over $ 40 million.
When asked under oath about the alleged manipulations, Perlmutter refused to answer, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
With Oren Yaniv and Thomas Tracy
rparascandola@nydailynews.com
Yahoo Local News – New York Daily News
http://ift.tt/1fzjw18
via Great Local News: New York http://ift.tt/1iZiLP1
No comments:
Post a Comment