Joel Schreiber has lived many lives.
Schreiber was the first investor in WeWork. He was a syndicator for trophy real estate in New York. He tried to launch a WeWork competitor. More recently, he has tried to become a tech virtuoso for Ryan Breslow’s embattled one-click checkout startup Bolt.
But Schreiber is still dogged by his past. He has faced lawsuit after lawsuit with allegations ranging from double pledging his WeWork collateral to failing to pay back investors, brokers and lenders.
Schreiber has managed to settle some of the suits, but has yet to fully escape one of his creditors: Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital.
Starwood has been pursuing Schreiber for almost three years over judgments related to a $213 million loan it provided Schreiber for the Broadway Trade Center, a 1-million-square-foot vacant office building in Downtown Los Angeles. Starwood has obtained two separate judgments totaling over $88 million against Schreiber.
But Schreiber has not paid a dime to Starwood. And Schreiber said he does not plan to pay any of the judgment. He claims this entire ordeal has harshed his vibe.
Starwood may not be getting paid, but at least its attorneys will be.
Kings County Judge Aaron Maslow of Kings County recently ordered Schreiber to pay $122,000 to Starwood’s lawyers David McTaggart and Paul Chronis of Duane Morris for their attorney fees. Schreiber will pay the lawyers in installments.
Starwood has long claimed he is broke. This is despite cashing out of his WeWork investment for at least $40 million. Or spending over $150,000 on his son’s wedding. Or spearheading the purchase of an office tower in Downtown Los Angeles for $104 million in 2023. Or sitting on the board of directors of Bolt, which once had a $14 billion valuation.
Starwood’s attorneys have argued that Schreiber has moved millions of dollars through different accounts. But once Starwood identified these accounts, money stopped flowing. The lender has been unable to find where Schreiber is parking his funds. (Schreiber denied having any secret account.)
Starwood argued it is essentially playing a game of whack-a-mole to find Schreiber’s money.
“It doesn’t matter which account is used, as long as it’s one that we can’t find. We fortuitously found [account number] 7251 because Chase produced it, not because Mr. Schreiber did. We can’t subpoena 60 banks across America without a good basis of knowing where the money is,” said Starwood’s attorneys at a hearing in March.
Starwood has sought to hold Schreiber in contempt of court with the possibility of imprisonment for failing to hand over documents related to his bank accounts and companies. Schreiber has avoided prison by dumping thousands of documents to Starwood prior to deadlines.
At a hearing to decide attorney fees, Schreiber argued Starwood’s hunt was “overkill,” the result of “over thoroughness.”
But Judge Maslow disagreed.
“The court finds it unseemly that defendant is quibbling over the attorney’s fees considering that it took him more than two years to properly respond to the information subpoena and the subpoena duces tecum, and even still there remains a question of where he is parking his personal money in order to avoid plaintiff’s levying upon it,” said Maslow.
Maslow added, “the work undertaken by plaintiff’s counsel was Herculean — having to deal with 30,000 pages of documents to see if what was requested had been provided.”
Schreiber has a different view of the legal battle with Starwood. During a hearing in March, Shreiber said he initially didn’t want to read the subpoenas sent by Starwood because they were “negative energy.”
And while the judge ordered Schreiber to appear at all the court hearings in order to avoid prison time, Schreiber told the court, “I’m here as a gentleman to figure this out.”
Schreiber’s lawyer did not return a request for comment.