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Companies associated with two reality TV stars, Donald Trump and Kris Jenner, are duking it out in court over $1.04 million in back rent.
The Trump Organization sued Legacy Business School, whose board was once chaired by Jenner, for failing to pay rent since January for its Trump Tower space, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in New York County Supreme Court.
The landlord wants the court to order a “sheriff or a New York City marshal” to evict Legacy, claiming it has refused to turn over part of the 19th floor of 725 Fifth Avenue even after the Trump Organization canceled its lease on July 6, according to the filing.
(Disclosure: Observer Media chairman Joseph Meyer is married to Nicole Kushner Meyer, the sister of Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.)
Legacy inked a 20-year lease at the tower in 2010 and first fell $198,000 behind on rent in 2020, the Washington Post reported. The school’s investors disclosed the arrears when they sued Legacy founder Alessandro Nomellini for allegedly defrauding them by taking extra shares of the business. It managed to pay its bills to Trump in October and November but hasn’t paid a dime since, Trump alleged.
A judge ordered Nomellini out of the Legacy and its Fifth Avenue offices in April, and now Trump wants the same. It’s unclear if Legacy is still operating out of Trump Tower. The company’s website appears to have expired.
Officials with Legacy could not immediately be reached for comment, and its affiliate, the European School of Economics, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A lawyer for the Trump Organization declined to comment.
The for-profit school opened at Trump Tower in 2016 with Jenner as the public face, charging roughly $105,000 annual tuition and offering its first 100 students an “exclusive dinner” with Jenner herself, The Daily Beast reported.
However, it quickly came under scrutiny after the Daily Beast revealed Legacy was simply a rebranding of the European School of Economics — a business the New York State Education Department claimed illegally advertised and awarded bachelor’s and master’s degrees despite not having any permission from the state to do so.
Legacy also became the target of a 2016 lawsuit from its former publicist Richard Rubenstein after Rubenstein claimed Legacy shorted him $57,000 in unpaid bills, Page Six reported. Jenner pulled out of the school that same year, saying she was “unable to commit the necessary time” to the project, the International Business Times reported.
But the European School of Economics is no stranger to lawsuits as it has been sued at least a dozen times for failing to pay its debts to various U.S. companies, Page Six reported.
Donald Trump, who led the Trump Organization until his presidential election in 2016, has had his fair share of legal battles. In 2018, a federal court approved a $25 million settlement with students who claimed they were duped by Trump and his now-shuttered Trump University, NBC reported. Plus, New York Attorney General Letitia James opened a still ongoing investigation in 2019 into whether the Trump Organization misled investors in how it appraised its properties.
Celia Young can be reached at cyoung@commercialobserver.com.
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