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Contractor files lien against Sara Bronfman’s Albany mansion, claims heiress stiffed him out of $35k

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Niagara Falls Reporter Staff  ·  December 25, 2017
Contractor files lien against Sara Bronfman’s Albany mansion, claims heiress stiffed him out of $35k
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By Frank Parlato;
Contractors went to work on Sara Bronfman’s new home in Clifton Park.
According to public records, filed with the Saratoga County Clerks’ office, a mechanic’s lien was filed by J. Snyder Builders LLC on the Albany area home of Sara Bronfman, heiress of the Seagram’s fortune, and devoted follower of NXIVM leader Keith Raniere.
In New York, liens filed on private property for claims of unpaid construction work are known as Mechanic’s Liens.
The property is at 7 Traymore, Clifton Park in Sarartoga County not far from Albany.
Bronfman purchased the home in the name of one of her companies, Alousch LLC, in June 2015. She paid more than $1.8 million for the 10,500 square feet home, with seven bedrooms and 9 bathrooms.
According to the deed on record, Bronfman [Aloush LLC] paid a transfer tax of $7,300, plus a mansion tax of $18,250 when she bought the property.
According to the mechanics lien, Bronfman hired Snyder Builders to remodel the home for $807,223.  Owner Jeffrey Snyder claims there is an unpaid balance of $35,223, which the heiress refuses to pay.  The lien was filed on 12/09/2016.  The debtors listed areAlousch LLC, Sara Bronfman and Basit Igtet. The amount is $35,685.29
The amount is trifling, especially when you consider that, according to court records in multiple liawsuits, Sara, along with her sister Clare Bronfman, gave more than $150 million from their family trust funds to NXIVM leader Keith Raniere.
They have funded his litigation, spending an estimated $50 million in attorneys’ fees on dozens of lawsuits against enemies of Raniere. The sisters also lost $65 million on commodities investments that Raniere made – and another $26 million on a failed real estate development deal.
A mechanics lien is a public notice which “encumbers” property, similar to a mortgage. In New York State, mechanics liens are used by contractors, architects, engineers, consultants, as well as subcontractors, sub-subcontractors and suppliers to give notice that there is a claim for unpaid work or materials that went into a particular property.

Once the mechanic’s lien is filed, and if the lien still is not paid, the next step is to foreclose the property.  A mechanic’s lien foreclosure forces the sale of the property so the lien can be satisfied out of the proceeds of the sale.

The Bronfman Brats have a long history of stiffing people they hire – and despite their wealth, never practice ‘noblesse oblige’ that inferred responsibility of privileged people to act with generosity and nobility toward those less privileged.

Sara will certainly spend more than the amount in question if she has to litigate the claim.  And just like her mentor, Keith Raniere, she has lost just about every lawsuit she’s ever been involved in.  Each time, however, she makes her opponent spend more than the amount in dispute.

In 2015, in typical Bronfman fashion, she sued her former condo board in New York City for $161,000 over a burst pipe. That lawsuit came about when her kitchen sink burst and flooded her neighbors’ units at her $8 million Trump Tower condo on the 33rd floor at One Central Park West. But the heiress refused to pay for the extensive damage to the other condos. Bronfman claimed the pipe that burst was behind the wall of her condo and, therefore, the board was responsible for repair costs.

Bronfman bought the three-bedroom, 2,165-square-foot unit in 2006 for $6.4 million.  She sold it for $8.8 million, thus realizing a $2.4 million gain.  When she wanted to close the deal, she still had not resolved the dispute with her neighbors whose condos had flooded. The condo board required her to put up a $161,000 escrow payment to cover the damages and gave her a year to resolve the issue. She did not.

The condo board took her $161,000 escrow and paid for the damages they claim Bronfman caused.

She hired attorney Adam Leitman Bailey to fight them and his legal bill may very likely exceed the amount in question.

A 2010 Vanity Fair article revealed that Sara and Clare tried to conceal their payments to NXIVM, including $11 million for a 22-seat jet, from their liquor magnate father Edgar Bronfman, who was worth over $2 billion when he died in 2013.

The Bronfmans sued Vanity Fair, but the case was dismissed after it was discovered that Clare Bronfman lied on court filings.

Sara and Clare Bronfman recently have gotten a round of fresh publicity for funding Raniere who is accused of branding women on the groin with his initials.

 

Sara Bronfman [Alousch LLC] bought 7 Traymore Trail Clifton Park for $1.85 million.
She hired J. Snyder Builders LLC to remodel the home for $807,223. She stiffed the contractor out of $35,685, the contractor claims and the company took a mechanic’s lien on the property. They can foreclose.
The lot is four acres
 

Here are some photos of the home Sara Bronfman refuses to pay $35,000 to complete the contract with the company that remodeled the home:

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