Dealt a mean 'acid' kicking
Ex-partner sues over ‘LSD plot’ & ‘beating’
The head of a $2 billion Manhattan real-estate company claims his ex-business partner first schemed to inject him with psychedelic drugs so he’d appear “insane,” then trapped the CEO in an elevator and beat him, according to a new lawsuit.
Jacob Frydman, of United Realty Trust, split with the company’s president, Eli Verschleiser, over a botched deal for 866 UN Plaza in 2013.
They’ve been warring in court ever since.
But things got even uglier following a Jan. 10 deposition, Frydman claims in the Manhat- tan Supreme Court suit against his ex-colleague.
Verschleiser, 43, 6-foot-4 and 100 pounds heavier than the 5foot-9, 60-year-old Frydman, allegedly followed his former partner into the elevator of a Wall Street building where the deposition was taking place.
Once inside, “Verschleiser struck Frydman with his fists about the head, abdomen and legs,” the suit claims.
Then he “scratched Frydman’s face and pulled out portions of Frydman’s hair,” according to court papers.
Frydman attempted to hit the emergency button while screaming for help, but Verschleiser towered over him, pressing the upper-floor button and then stomping on the older man’s chest, the suit says.
“If you do not immediately end the lawsuits against me, I will put an end to you,” Verschleiser allegedly warned.
Frydman claims he later learned that Verschleiser tried to “hire criminals to follow him when he was to appear in court and stick him with a syringe filled with LSD so that he would behave ‘insane.’ ”
Verschleiser also “offered to pay $50,000 to hire prostitutes to lure Mr. Frydman to a hotel to photograph him, and use the pictures to blackmail Mr. Frydman,” the filing states.
Verschleiser called the LSD and prostitute claims “outlandish.”
What Frydman doesn’t mention in his suit is that both men were arrested and charged with third-degree assault after the elevator incident.
And Verschleiser insists Frydman started it.
“When I confronted Frydman with a court decision that found Frydman engaged in fraudulent behavior, he became rabid and stormed out of the deposition,” Verschleiser said. “Frydman followed me into an elevator and bit my leg and hand, but then accused me of attacking him first although Frydman didn’t have one mark on him.”