Lawsuit Against Daniel Fine Over Soho Penthouse Rental Fraud

The Daniel Fine lawsuit over the Soho penthouse at 54 Thompson Street was filed in New York County Supreme Court on March 24, 2025, by the unit’s owners, who allege that Fine used a forged JPMorgan bank statement to secure a $45,000-per-month lease and then never paid rent. The suit also names luxury real estate broker Tal Alexander, his firm Official Partners, and former Official agent Nicholas Lounsbury, accusing the brokers of pushing the deal through to collect a commission despite reason to know the financials were fabricated. It brings claims for fraud, aiding and abetting fraud, and breach of contract, and seeks more than $500,000 in damages.¹²

What the Owners Allege

The plaintiffs are Hugh and Tri Nguyen, executives at the Miami mortgage lender Network Capital, who bought the roughly 7,000-square-foot duplex penthouse for $12.3 million in August 2021.³¹⁴

According to the complaint, the Nguyens were uneasy about Fine from the outset. They flagged his 710 credit score and questioned the legitimacy of his business ventures, which the complaint described as a “Cannabis Cooking Calculator” app and a small factoring lender. The owners allege that Alexander and Lounsbury, acting as their brokers, urged them to rely on a JPMorgan bank statement purporting to show that Fine’s company held more than $4 million in cash. The Nguyens contend that document was a forgery and that the brokers pushed it forward to collect their leasing commission.¹

Once the lease began, the complaint says, Fine “immediately failed” to pay rent and utility charges, leaving a six-figure balance. The owners also allege Fine never actually lived in the apartment. Instead, they claim, he and FineCo used it to generate income through parties and unauthorized subletting, and the landlord submitted photographs of a party at the unit dated February 21, 2025 to support that account.⁵⁴ The Nguyens are represented by Y. David Scharf and Christopher Milito of Morrison Cohen LLP.²

Who Daniel Fine Is

Fine is a serial entrepreneur who founded the branded sunglasses company Glass-U as a Wharton undergraduate and later built earlier ventures in custom apparel and tutoring.⁶ More recently he founded and led Setscale, a fintech startup offering purchase order financing to small and mid-sized businesses. Setscale announced a $9.5 million seed round in May 2023 alongside up to $70 million in debt financing.⁷ Setscale’s model, funding product purchases against confirmed orders, is a form of factoring, matching the complaint’s reference to Fine operating a “factoring lender.”⁸

How the Defendants Have Responded

Fine’s attorney, Maya Petrocelli, called the fraud lawsuit “nothing more than an amateur litigation stunt.” She denied the forgery claim and pointed to an email from a JPMorgan Private Bank analyst that, according to The Real Deal, “appears to confirm Fine had more than $4.3 million across his accounts at the time of the lease.” On the nonpayment, Petrocelli said FineCo withheld rent because the landlord failed to provide adequate heat and air conditioning, rendering the apartment uninhabitable under New York’s warranty of habitability.¹⁹

Jason Goldman, an attorney for Tal Alexander, called the suit “meritless” and said Alexander “had no knowledge of any fraud, nor was he responsible for vetting this tenant.” Goldman described the claims as “a baseless and transparent attempt to capitalize on Tal Alexander’s name to manufacture publicity.”⁹

The Separate Rent Collection Case Against Fine

Before filing the fraud suit, the landlord went after Fine directly on the personal guarantee. On December 10, 2024, 54 Thompson St, PH LLC filed an action (Index No. 659549/2024) claiming $252,063.08 in unpaid rent, electricity, and attorney’s fees.⁴

On May 2, 2025, Justice Arthur F. Engoron granted the landlord summary judgment on liability. The court held that Fine’s guarantee was an unconditional instrument for the payment of money and eligible for expedited judgment under CPLR 3213. Engoron found that Fine’s habitability and rent abatement defenses were “extrinsic to the absolute and unconditional nature of the guaranty” and could not defeat the motion. The ruling established liability but left the exact damages and fees to be set at a separate hearing.¹⁰⁴

A stipulation of discontinuance was filed on May 12, 2025, shortly after the summary judgment ruling, and the case is listed as closed. A discontinuance typically signals that the parties reached a resolution, though the terms have not been publicly disclosed.¹¹ A parallel nonpayment proceeding against FineCo Enterprises LLC (Index No. LT-31654-2024/NY), filed in New York City Civil Court in September 2024, was still pending as of the May 2025 decision.⁴

Where the Fraud Suit Stands

The March 2025 fraud suit against Fine, Alexander, Official Partners, and Lounsbury has not been reported as resolved. Its trajectory is complicated by what has happened to Alexander outside this dispute. In December 2024, Tal Alexander and his brothers Oren and Alon were arrested in Florida and charged in a federal indictment out of the Southern District of New York with sex trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion. Prosecutors alleged that from roughly 2010 to 2021 the brothers used their wealth and broker status to lure and traffic dozens of women.¹²¹³¹⁴

Official, the firm Tal and Oren Alexander co-founded around 2022 after leaving Douglas Elliman, was destabilized when the sexual assault allegations surfaced in mid-2024. Both brothers stepped down from operations and several senior leaders departed, leaving Oren and Tal as the firm’s sole owners as of August 2024.¹⁵ With Alexander now convicted and Official’s leadership collapsed, the practical path of the fraud claims against the broker defendants is uncertain on the record available.

1
The Real Deal. Tal Alexander, Official Sued Over Soho Penthouse Rental
2
Morrison Cohen. Christopher Milito Quoted in the Real Deal on Soho Rental Scam Lawsuit
3
The Real Deal. Richard Ohebshalom Loses Home Building in Soho
4
NY Courts. 54 Thompson St, PH LLC v Fine, 2025 NY Slip Op 31606(U)
5
AOL (New York Post). NYC Real Estate Bro Facing Dozens of Rape Claims Duped Building Owner
6
The New York Times. Daniel Fine of Glass-U Decides That the Degree Matters
7
PR Newswire. Fintech Startup Setscale Launches to Help Small Businesses Fund Purchase Orders
8
Setscale. Company
9
New York Post. NYC Real Estate Bro Facing Dozens of Rape Claims Duped Building Owner to Rent $45K-a-Month Pad
10
Midpage. 54 Thompson St, PH LLC v Fine
11
UniCourt. 54 Thompson St, PH LLC v Fine
12
U.S. Department of Justice. Alon Alexander, Oren Alexander, and Tal Alexander Charged in Manhattan Federal Court With Sex Trafficking
13
ABC7. Alexander Brothers Luxury Real Estate Brokers Convicted of Sex Trafficking
14
BBC. Alexander Brothers Found Guilty of Sex Trafficking
15
The Real Deal. Oren, Tal Alexander Left With Sole Ownership of Official