Vikings co-owner sued over real estate company
Published 11:32 am Saturday, May 16, 2015
FREEHOLD, N.J. — A co-owner of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings has been sued in New Jersey by the children of a former partner who say their father was cut out of a real estate deal by Zygi Wilf and his father.
The son and daughter of Meyer Gold, who died in 2013, say he was a one-third owner of the company, called Amchu, but received nothing from the lease of property in Fairfield, in northern New Jersey, or from rental income that averages $1,600 per month per unit for the 122-unit adult residential complex the Wilfs built there.
The suit, filed Thursday, alleges the Wilfs formed another company, Fairfield Woodcrest, “for the sole purpose of diverting Amchu’s legal and contractual rights” in the Fairfield property and excluding Gold.
It also claims Joseph Wilf, Zygi Wilf’s father, transferred a one-third share of Amchu that had belonged to one of the company’s original partners to himself in the mid-1990s without notifying Meyer Gold.
According to the lawsuit, Gold was among a group of Holocaust survivors who settled in New Jersey and eventually became successful builders and landowners.
An attorney for the Wilfs on Friday said the lawsuit lacks merit.
“You can’t stop someone from filing a lawsuit no matter how ridiculous and meritless the lawsuit is, and this is both ridiculous and meritless,” attorney Peter Harvey said.
Harvey said Gold didn’t want to participate in the residential project. He said even if the lawsuit had merit, it would be barred by a six-year statute of limitations.
In 2013, a New Jersey judge ordered Zygi Wilf, his brother and cousin to pay about $100 million over a broken deal to develop an apartment complex.