The cooperating witness at the center of the Malcolm Smith corruption scandal is a scummy developer who owes $126 million in a real estate deal gone bad, sources said.
Moses “Mark” Stern, who worked with feds to bring down state Sen. Smith and city Councilman Dan Halloran, was sued by Citigroup in 2010 after personally guaranteeing the massive loans in 2007.
Stern wanted to buy 11 shopping malls in the southeast. But his company went bankrupt, and Citigroup sued, court records show.
Feds arrested the deal’s escrow agent, Ephraim Frenkel, on fraud charges, for allegedly lying about having received the closing costs for the sale.
Stern pleaded guilty in federal court on March 11 to unspecified charges.
Stern began meeting with the mayor of Spring Valley, Noramie Jasmin, who was netted in the far-ranging corruption probe after allegedly agreeing to hook up Stern with land for a development in exchange for bribing officials to get Smith on the mayoral ballot.
The connection was first made by Vos Iz Neis.