In the dimly lit
hallway of a South Florida condominium, a man in a white
fedora presides over an auction.
The prize is around the corner, a 700 square foot,
one-bedroom apartment left behind by a woman with dementia
who died estranged from her heirs.
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Attorney Brad Schandler, at right, prepares to preside over a foreclosure auction at Oakland Grove Village Condominium in Oakland Park, Florida on Tuesday, February 27, 2024. Auction bidders include Schandler’s sister, Nadine August, seen at center, and Mauricio J. Riquer, at left They are joined by court reporter Gary Siffort. |
His methods have been
described by attorneys as a “fraud and hoax” upon the court,
illicit “equity stripping,” and “brazen manipulation of the
court system,” but authorities have taken no action and
South Florida judges keep enabling him.
The cases point to a weakness in the Florida foreclosure
process at an especially dangerous time, as assessments and
liens are expected to increase to meet new condo maintenance
laws passed after the 2021 Surfside condo collapse.
The patterns the Herald found reveal how savvy lawyers can
work the system to wrest condos away from absentee owners
and the relatives of dead owners over liens as small as a
few thousand dollars. Heirs who lost out and legitimate
bidders who were shut out said they were shocked that
Schandler and his network have the courts’ blessing to
operate the way they do.
One woman said her family didn’t lose just their Kendall
condo, but also everything inside of it, and a Jeep parked
outside. Another said she fought to save her grandparents’
condo but lost the ocean-view unit and everything in it,
including the paintings. Both missed a legal window of
opportunity to collect their belongings.
Schandler, 68, who lives with his wife in a modest townhouse
in Hollywood’s Emerald Hills neighborhood, grew up in South
Florida. His parents, Bernie and Dolly, owned a Wolfie’s on
163rd Street in North Miami Beach in the ‘60s, ‘70s and
‘80s, according to his father’s obituary. He earned his law
degree at the University of Miami in 1983.
He said his tactics aren’t unique. “I know there are other
people probably doing similar things,” Schandler told a
Miami Herald reporter at the Oakland Park hallway auction on
Feb. 27.
In a written response supplied by his attorney on March 26,
Schandler said he uses an “alternative, legal foreclosure
sale method” to help condo associations quickly clear up
cases where an owner is in default and the condo may be
“long abandoned.” They are cases “where no property owner or
family member of a property owner remains with any interest
in the property.”
“Our clients can promptly pay the condo the unpaid fees or
assessments much faster than if the association paid a
lawyer to proceed with the foreclosure case, which can drag
on for months or years,” the statement said.
“In the rare instance where a distant family member emerges
late in the process, after the court has unsuccessfully
attempted to locate them, my clients and I make every effort
to resolve the foreclosure to the family member’s
satisfaction.”
How this secret system works
The Herald found nearly 30 cases in Broward and Miami-Dade
counties in which Schandler and associated lawyers used a
series of similar, unconventional tactics to game the system
and buy condos for a fraction of their market value.
Schandler and his network typically pursue properties owned
by the estates of people who have died and whose mortgages
were fully paid off, leaving no banks to complicate an
otherwise simple proceeding. In some cases, owners or heirs
live in other countries. The properties are often in
foreclosure over unpaid condo assessments or fees.
Schandler usually pays off the condo debt in exchange for
the right to try to recover that money through the
foreclosure case. That gives him standing to join a case and
request modifications to the foreclosure process.
The Herald found a pattern of Schandler persuading judges to
approve three unusual tactics that helped him upend the
normal foreclosure auction process and ensure a win:
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On-site auctions: Instead of holding foreclosure auctions online, as is typical in Florida now, Schandler gets judges to let him hold auctions at the property. In the cases reviewed by the Herald, few if any competing bidders showed up to the in-person auctions.
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No redos: While auctions typically are redone if the winning bidder fails to pay, Schandler has persuaded judges to declare that if the winner doesn’t make good on their bid, Schandler’s client can have the property, typically for $100.
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Bidding credits: When the auction is held online, Shandler has persuaded judges to give his clients an unlimited “bidding credit.” They can bid as high as they need to win, but they don’t have to pay that amount. They are only required to pay the debt owed on the property and a little extra to cover fees.
Schandler’s Rules
When Brad Schandler becomes involved in condo foreclosure
cases, they quickly deviate from the norm.
Debt A condo owner incurs a debt, often from
non-payment of condo fees.
Case The holder of the debt, often the condo
association, files a foreclosure suit against the owner.
Judgment A judge approves a final judgment,
authorizing the sale of the property at auction and setting
how much money the holder of the debt is owed from the
proceeds.
Auction The property is put up for sale, typically
online. The proceeds from the sale are used to repay the
debt-holder.
Schandler's Rules Most auctions changed to on-site at
property. If the top bidder fails to pay, Schandler’s client
wins the auction for little cost.
Schandler's Rules In some online auctions, Schandler
gets a bidding credit which allows his client to bid an
unlimited amount but only have to pay the judgment amount
plus fees.
Proceeds Other parties can apply for any funds
leftover from the sale after the judgment has been repaid.
This is when other heirs could make a claim for surplus
funds.
Schandler's Rules After auctions with Schandler
rules, there is typically no surplus left over for heirs.
Ownership Once the sale is final, the winner of the
auction takes ownership, at which time they can either keep
the property or re-sell it.
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“If a judge orders it, what can we say
other than that the judge was taken advantage of,” he said.
The courts effectively operate on an honor system, relying
on the good faith and accuracy of pleadings filed by
lawyers, said Broward Chief Judge Jack Tuter. “We’re not
investigators,” he said. “It’s very difficult for us.”
Schandler told the Herald he “didn’t
invent” the notion of holding foreclosure auctions in
person. They used to all be handled that way - on the
courthouse steps. Today’s online auctions, he said, can
attract bidders who don’t research ahead of time, default
after winning, and add delay and cost to the case. So, he
said, he borrowed tactics he’d seen in other cases, and
wrote auction terms he likes better.
“They are real auctions,” he said. “Anyone can appear.”
Schandler said in his written statement that the unlimited
bidding credits he wins on behalf of clients are
“innovative” but “not particularly unusual.”
But he declined to explain the rationale behind the credits.
“I am sure you understand that I am not going to discuss my
legal strategies with you,” he said.
Those strategies have been effective for Schandler. The
Herald found five instances in which his clients had been
granted this allowance, bidding just over $637,000 to win
the properties but paying only $134,000 to claim them.
Kitty and Katz
In the past 10 years, Schandler’s network has snapped up at
least 20 properties worth more than $4.5 million, according
to the Herald’s analysis of court records. Typically they
paid little more than the cost of the judgment associated
with the foreclosure, a fraction of the property’s value.
It isn’t clear how much of that money has made its way into
Schandler’s pockets. He declined to discuss how much he
makes from his work when asked by the Herald at the Oakland
Park auction, saying only, “It beats waiting tables.”
Schandler said in his written statement that the proceeds
from these transactions go to his clients, not him. He
declined to say who his clients are.
Though Schander told the Herald “I practice by myself,” a
small group of people have been present in many of his
cases, including attorneys Robert C. Meyer of Coral Gables
and Samuel R. Danziger (now deceased) of Miami, and a man
named Louis S. Katz, location unknown.
Schandler’s sister, Nadine August, appears to have been
involved in at least two of the cases examined by the
Herald. In one case she bid under her real name. In the
other, a competing bidder identified her as the woman who
bid under the name “Kitty Lefkowitz.”
Schandler’s network
A small group of lawyers and associates
has provided assistance in a number of Brad Schandler’s
foreclosure cases.
Schandler said he wasn’t comfortable talking with the Herald
about his cases or associates. In a written statement from
his lawyer, he said they were “colleagues” and have done
nothing improper.
Meyer and August didn’t respond to multiple requests for
comment.
The Herald was unable to find any public footprint in
Florida or contact information for Katz or Lefkowitz.
‘Something very dirty is going on here’
Right before the auction was to start on a two-bedroom
Pompano Beach condo with ocean views, a woman showed up and
said her name was Kitty Lefkowitz.
She joined a retired Realtor named Hernando Posse, who was
the only other bidder at the July 2021 auction at the
property, in foreclosure over unpaid condo assessments.
Schandler presided over the auction in the lobby of the
condo building, and it went quickly. As Posse recalled,
whatever he bid, Lefkowitz bid more. The price soon exceeded
what Posse could afford, and Lefkowitz won with a bid of
$185,000.
Lefkowitz never paid the full amount she owed, but the condo
didn’t go back to auction. Instead, thanks to a rule written
by Schandler and approved by Broward Circuit Judge Nicholas
Lopane, the property went for $100 to a company represented
by Schandler.
There would soon be doubts about whether Lefkowitz was
actually who she said she was.
When Herald reporters recently showed Posse a picture of
Schandler’s sister, Nadine August, he recognized her as the
bidder who gave her name as Kitty Lefkowitz.
August didn’t respond to questions from the Herald, and
Schandler didn’t respond directly to the Herald’s question
about whether his sister had posed as Lefkowitz. In his
statement, he responded: “the business of foreclosure
litigation and investing is ‘cut-throat.’ Many competing
investors may want to take whatever actions possible to
eliminate or defame and disparage their competition or the
attorneys representing competing interests.”
Posse said he’s still upset about losing out on the
apartment. He said he had been bidding in auctions for
months hoping to find an affordable place to live in a
region where such properties are in short supply.
“I needed a roof, I needed a place to live. That apartment
would have been perfect,” he said. “Something very dirty is
going on here and Brad Schandler is the engineer of it.”
Posse recently complained to the Florida Bar about what he
saw. A Bar spokeswoman said they’d received an “inquiry”
about Schandler but there was not “enough information to
rise to the level of a legally sufficient complaint.”
Posse wasn’t the only person shut out of the auction.
The apartment had belonged to Kori Delcourt’s grandparents,
whose closest relative was her uncle. It was only after her
uncle died in summer 2021 that she learned it had been
foreclosed.
Delcourt’s lawyer, Jordan Wagner, couldn’t find any record
of Kitty Lefkowitz, and the only address listed for her in
the court records was the property address itself.
Wagner submitted a scathing 70-page court filing in November
2021, seeking to undo the sale and highlighting what he
called a “pattern of fraud, misconduct, and brazen
manipulation of the court system.”
As Delcourt recalls, Schandler was eager to settle. She
reluctantly agreed to the settlement — whose terms she can’t
legally discuss — and withdrew her motion to overturn the
sale, convinced it would be hard for her to win a better
outcome. Years later, she is still upset that she lost the
apartment.
The condo was sold in late 2022 for $520,000 by a company
affiliated with one of Schandler’s associates. It’s back on
the market now, with an asking price of $650,000.
‘How did you know about this?’
Tamir Ness was serving on a condo board at the Nine at Mary
Brickell Village in Miami when he learned one of the units
was headed to an auction to be held in the building. Ness
decided he’d go.
The auction was held in front of the elevator on the 27th
floor. Ness said anyone who didn’t live in the tower might
have been turned away by security guards, who were unaware
the auction was taking place.
When he spoke with Schandler to arrange giving him a
cashier’s check ahead of time, a prerequisite to participate
in the auction, Schandler asked him, “How did you know about
this?”
Robert Meyer, the auctioneer that day, didn’t kick it off on
time. He said he was waiting for another bidder to arrive
and that if Ness didn’t like it, he could leave.
Meyer left, then returned 15 minutes later with the bidder,
who gave the name Louis Katz.
Ness said he later viewed security footage and saw that
Meyer and the bidder had arrived in the lobby together that
morning.
The auction started 39 minutes late. Within three minutes,
the bids were up to $430,000, and the man who identified
himself as Katz won.
“I just kept bidding, bidding and I just stopped,” Ness
said. “I could have gone to $10 million and he’d keep
bidding.”
The next day, Katz didn’t pay the $430,000. So, by the terms
of the auction approved by Miami Circuit Court Judge Renatha
Francis (now on the Florida Supreme Court), the ownership of
the condo went to Schandler’s client, a trust connected to
Danziger.
Ness was in for a further surprise when he received a
transcript of the auction and learned that the man who said
he was Katz and put in the winning bid at the auction was
identified in the transcript as Brad Schandler.
Thanks to the wording in Judge Francis’ order — written by
Schandler and adopted verbatim by the judge — Schandler paid
just $3,478 in condo debt to win the property.
Judge Francis declined to comment to the Herald, citing
judicial codes of conduct that prevent her from discussing
specific cases.
Ness’s lawyer filed a motion to reverse the sale on the
basis of “fraud, misrepresentation, irregularity in the
conduct of the sale and collusive bidding.”
“This gentleman is very creative, and he knows how to work
around the law and ... he just knows these loopholes and he
knows how to play the courts,” Ness told the Herald. “His
wisdom and his experience unfortunately outweighs everyone
else’s ignorance.”
Before things went any further with Ness’ complaint, the son
and daughter of the condo’s deceased owner — a Kuwait
resident — found out what happened and objected to the sale
of the condo, saying they were the legitimate heirs.
The foreclosure case ultimately settled out of court, with
undisclosed terms.
‘Keeping rightful heirs from what they were entitled to’
When foreclosure sales occur, relatives and other connected
parties can petition the court for a portion of any sale
proceeds left over after the debt from the property has been
repaid.
Schandler ensured that Lori Evans didn’t get a penny when
her cousin Erik Lemberg died, leaving behind no children and
a two-bedroom condo in Tamarac.
“Erik and I were very close growing up,” she said. “I
literally talked to him three days before he died.”
Evans didn’t have the money to take on her cousin’s
property, which had fallen into disrepair and was headed to
foreclosure over unpaid condo assessments. A lawyer told her
she might still be able to claim a portion of the proceeds
when the apartment was sold at auction.
“It would have definitely helped me in a big way,” said
Evans, who raised her daughter alone in the Atlanta suburbs.
Given the value of the property and the $15,000 debt owed to
the condo association, Evans’ lawyer estimated her portion
of the leftover funds could be more than $30,000.
But Schandler convinced Broward Circuit Judge Florence
Taylor Barner to give his client a mind boggling advantage —
an unlimited bidding credit. Schandler’s client could bid
any amount in the online auction, but would only have to pay
$20,000.
Deep discounts In several foreclosure cases, Brad Schandler
has convinced judges to allow his clients to bid anything
they want at online auctions, but only be on the hook for a
little more than what is owed on the property.
Schandler’s client won the auction for $95,800, beating out
numerous other bidders, including one who bid $95,700. Court
records show that the bidder name associated with that
winning bid was Adonai Lee, which translates to the “Lord is
with me” in Hebrew. While the same bidder name, Adonai Lee,
was associated with the winning bid in at least two other
auctions won by Schandler’s clients, Schandler said in a
statement that the name was listed incorrectly and that he
“was not responsible for these forms, prepared by the
clerk.”
Had Schandler’s client been forced to pay the full amount
for the Tamarac condo, there would have been a surplus of
roughly $80,000 and Evans likely would have been able to
claim a portion of it.
“It just seemed like it was a scheming way of doing business
and keeping rightful heirs from what they were entitled to,”
Evans said.
Schandler’s client, a trust that lists the same address as
Schandler’s virtual office, still owns the property, which
is valued at a little more than $160,000.
‘We lost everything’
Schandler has used these online auction rules at least once
to win control of a property from owners who were still
alive, but living abroad.
Living in Peru and not understanding English well, Jose
Manuel Aramayo didn’t have a good grasp of what was
happening with his Kendall condo when it was foreclosed in
2018, his daughter, Maria Aramayo, told the Herald.
While he owned the condo free and clear, he had taken out a
mortgage on it in 2017, and soon defaulted when an
investment went sour. He owed the $15,000 on that mortgage,
plus another $7,000 in fees and $7,099 in unpaid
assessments.
He was consumed by depression, his daughter recalled, and
didn’t tell family members what was going on.
Schandler convinced Miami-Dade Circuit Judge John Thornton
Jr. to give his client an unlimited bidding credit when
Aramayo’s foreclosed condo went to auction. So while his
client won the auction with a bid of $150,400, it only paid
$23,646.08, court records show.
Miami attorney John Paul Arcia tried to get the condo back
for the Aramayo family, arguing that Thornton had erred in
hastily signing a “nefarious court order” less than two
hours after it was submitted by Schandler. He said it had
been “intentionally drafted in a confusing manner so as to
not arouse suspicion of its devious purpose.’’
He alleged that Asset Recoveries LLC, a Schandler- and
Meyer-affiliated entity that ultimately paid the winning
bid, engaged in “equity stripping.” “The facts of this case
are appalling, unjust, unconscionable, inequitable and it is
hard to believe that these facts have actually transpired,”
Arcia wrote.
Thornton retired from the bench soon after. Now a mediator
and arbitrator, he did not respond to multiple requests for
comment. Asked to reconsider what Thornton had done,
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts ruled that
Schandler’s client had been entitled only to a $7,099
bidding credit, but it was too late in the judicial process
to undo the mistake. An appeals court upheld
Rodriguez-Fonts’ decision.
Without the unlimited credit, Arcia argued, Aramayo would
have been entitled to more than $100,000 left over after the
small judgment was paid.
He got nothing. Even the contents of the condo were taken,
Maria Aramayo said. Schandler, through his attorney, said
Aramayo had more than three months after losing ownership to
remove his belongings.
“We lost everything,” Maria Aramayo said. “Everything that
you could have in an apartment to live, like everything.”
Gone were photo albums, a grandmother’s sewing machine, the
Jeep Patriot that she and her husband drove when they were
dating.
Jose Manuel Aramayo had bought the condo when his son was
studying in Miami, and he thought his daughter could stay
there when she visited from Indiana. It was an investment,
and a safe one, or so it seemed. Losing it wrecked her
father for a time, she said.
“He was just consumed then by this depression, anxiety and
the fear of losing the apartment because that would have
been something he would have used for his retirement,” she
said in an interview. “I couldn’t believe the judge or the
court would allow this.”
Asset Recoveries still owns the two-bedroom, two-bathroom
condo, now valued at $215,814.
‘A scheme perpetrated by misrepresentation’
Arcia isn’t the only lawyer who has raised alarm bells about
Schandler’s activity, but those warnings have never resulted
in consequences.
In November 2017, Schandler tried to intervene in a Fort
Lauderdale condo foreclosure, saying he represented a trust
affiliated with Samuel Danziger that paid the cremation
costs of the condo’s owner, Susan Koskey. He said the trust
was assigned the right to collect that debt.
Broward County Circuit Judge Martin Bidwill allowed
Schandler to intervene in the case, but reversed his
decision when Ashley Tulloch, a lawyer representing the
condo association, established that Schandler had not paid
the medical examiner’s office that cremated Koskey and that
the office didn’t assign anyone the right to collect payment
for debts.
Bidwill blocked Schandler from joining the case, ruling that
he carried out “a scheme perpetrated by misrepresentation.”
But he took no action to hold Schandler accountable.
Tulloch filed a report with Fort Lauderdale police. But the
police report showed that the case died after officers
talked to another lawyer involved who told them that there
were no victims because Koskey died with no heirs.
But Koskey did have relatives. And fortunately for them,
Schandler wasn’t allowed to rewrite the rules of their
auction. The sale yielded a surplus of nearly $150,000, and
a handful of relatives collected a portion.
Koskey’s 80-year-old cousin, Barb Brenna of Cook, Minnesota,
said she thought of the $12,000 payment she received as a
“gift,” but would have been upset if the family had been
denied a share of the proceeds because Schandler had changed
the rules.
“It makes my heart sick when I think that somebody took
something that belonged to somebody else,” she said.