A disgraced former construction-industry big has been charged with stealing $2.5 million from a multimillion-dollar building project inside Trump Tower, prosecutors said yesterday.
Ted Kohl, 63, used his ill-gotten gains from the construction of high-end British retailer Asprey’s flagship store in Donald Trump’s Fifth Avenue building to live the high life – and to pay for his extremely costly divorce, Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau said.
Kohl, who is on probation for money laundering and tax evasion, and a colleague at IDI Construction, James Stumpf, pleaded not guilty to charges of grand larceny and falsifying business records.
Kohl was released on $500,000 bail and Stumpf, 61, on $100,000 bail.
While Stumpf was listed as the president of IDI – short for I Deserve It – Morgenthau said Kohl “was the boss.”
Prosecutors said Kohl was taking in $25,000 a week while IDI was working as the construction manager on Asprey’s planned $17.5 million construction project.
The cost of the project ballooned to $28 million, with Kohl keeping $2.5 million that was supposed to go to subcontractors, prosecutors said. IDI then sought bankruptcy protection, leaving the Asprey job unfinished.
The theft, unfinished work, unpaid bills and resulting liens drove up the current cost of the project to $40 million and counting, prosecutors said.
The DA said Kohl and Stumpf used some of the cash to pay off debts, but most of it was depleted by Kohl’s “lavish lifestyle” and his “expensive divorce” from now ex-wife Leslye[cq] Kohl.
The ex cleaned up in divorce court, getting 50 percent of the cash from the sale of their $15 million Southampton home, $1 million worth of artwork and $12,000 a month in alimony.