A politically connected power couple is in hot water amid allegations of fraud for moving posh property they owned jointly into the wife’s name only — so it wouldn’t be seized to pay off a $550,000 debt racked up by the hubby’s company.
Vinode Ramgopal, an adviser to ex-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s company, Albright Stonebridge Group, lost his own company, the Marco Polo Group, to bankruptcy.
Ramgopal’s commercial landlord, 75 Broad LLC, initially sued Marco Polo for defaulting on its lease, and now it is suing Ramgopal alleging real-estate fraud.
At the time of the banruptcy, Ramgopal co-owned two properties that he could have sold to pay his debt: a $6.5 million Upper West Side townhouse and a $1.5 million Southampton beach house.
Instead, he transferred his half-ownership in the properties to his wife, Heather McCallion.
His debtor, 75 Broad LLC, calls that fraud in a state Supreme Court suit.
In his response, Ramgopal said the transfers were made for “family reasons rather than creditor issues.”