What Are You Doing With That Patient's Medical Specimen, Mr. Stern?
A look at the first of two lawsuits involving South Blooming Grove's de facto Mayor, Joel M. Stern and his buddy, Isaac Ekstein.
I’m researching the Rapid Care building located at 815 Route 208. Some of you, like me, may have gone there for medical attention after the local doctor’s offices have closed.
Whether or not you’ll want to continue doing so after reading this is up to you.
As part of Blooming Grove Realty LLC, 815 UC LLC, BNB Management LLC, and John Liebermann v. Rapid Properties LLC, Preferred Estates Realty LLC, Five Star Medical Group Inc., Joel Stern, and Isaac Ekstein, there are some disturbing allegations made concerning South Blooming Grove Confidential Assistant to the Mayor, Joel Stern, and South Blooming Grove Legislative Aid, Isaac Ekstein, aka Yitzhok R. Ekstein.
The public has the right to know about the potentially illegal behavior conducted by South Blooming Grove village employees.
Who Owns This Building?
The Rapid Care facility is located at 815 Route 208. It is currently owned by Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein’s Preferred Estates Realty LLC — although the court case we’re discussing disputes this.
The building was the location for a branch of the Ellenville National Bank. According to Orange County property records, the building is still classified as a bank.
In October of 2013, the bank sold the building to Tri Star Management Inc for $215,000.
Two years later, in 2015, Tri Star Management Inc sold the building to ARA Bagels Inc for $200,000.
On July 22nd, 2021, ARA Bagels Inc sold the building to Stern and Ekstein’s Preferred Estates Relaty LLC for $800,000
(When ARA Bagels Inc came into possession of the building is unknown.)
A week later, on July 29th, 2021, Joel M. Stern is appointed confidential assistant to the Mayor, George Kalaj, and Isaac Ekstein is appointed Legislative aid.
Stern and Ekstein’s Preferred Estates Realty LLC is based at 412 N Main St
Monroe NY 10950, using Suite 201 as their address.
Worth noting for future investigations is that there are numerous other LLCs also registered to this same address and suite number.
Some of them include: 9 Austra Estates LLC, Svm Estates LLC, Troy Estates Realty LLC, 2 Hill Ave LLC, Bakertown Circle LLC, and Albany Estates Holdings LLC, all according to OpenGovNY.
Also worth noting is that Ark Mortage’s Monroe office also uses this same address. Although neither Isaac Ekstein or Joel Stern are listed as employees of Ark Mortage, a Shulem Ekstein is listed as a personal mortgage advisor who works out of that office.
The Lawsuit
In February of 2022, after both Ekstein and Stern are village employees, they tell Mr. John Liebermann about a building they have been renting at 815 Route 208.
Renting to who? Orange County says they own the building.
Stern and Ekstein also tell Liebermann that they want to open an urgent care facility at this building.
In March of 2022, Stern and Ekstein propose that they and Liebermann form a new company called Rapid Care NY LLC. Despite the name, the proposed company would be registered in Deleware, a known haven for con men to hide their money.
They never actually sign this agreement though. Instead, Stern sends an email to Ekstein and Liebermann laying out a different agreement they’ll work off of instead.
Now, remember, at this point Stern is basically running South Blooming Grove as the de facto mayor, which makes this part of the proposed email contract worth a look by authorities:
“Party B [Stern and Ekstein] will take care of business development, including but not limited to: acquiring the appropriate land, getting full municipal approvals, grants, licenses, and government backing in order to establish a full scale FQHC with full specialty components, as well as manage the media, marketing and community outreach and assist with the day to day operations when needed.” [Emphasis Added.]
On June 1st, 2022, Ekstein tells Liebermann that the new LLC, Rapid Properties has been formed and will own the property. Liebermann in turn forms Bloomingrove Realty LLC (More on Libermann and Blooming Grove Realty some other time.)
Now this part is really important. From the court documents:
“Pursuant to the Email Agreement, a contract of sale (the “Contract of Sale”) to purchase the Property was drafted with Stern acting for the joint venture entity Rapid Properties LLC, as a purchaser, and Yochanan Mann on behalf of Preferred Estates Realty LLC as a seller. The unsigned Contract of Sale is attached hereto as Exhibit A. The purchase price under the Contract of Sale was $1,900,000.00 with a down payment of $125,000.00 and a balance at closing of $1,775,000.00. Stern and Ekstein asked Liebermann to pay the down payment and Liebermann agreed to do so. [Emphasis Added]
So, Liebermann sends them the check for $125,000, which Stern and Ekstein confirm receipt of, stating that the contract was signed. It wasn’t. But the check, of course, was deposited and cleared by Stern and Ekstein.
And That’s When Things Get Weird
On June 3rd, 2022, Rapid Care opens. But the title of the property is never transferred from Stern and Ekstein’s Preferred Estates Realty LLC to the new LLC, Rapid Properties.
One of the possible reasons things got weird? Stern and Ekstein agreed to buy Forme’ Medical Center in West Chester for $10M in November of 2022, and put down a $500,000 deposit. Whether or not Mr. Liebermann’s $125,000 was part of the $500,000 deposit is not yet known.
At some point between November of 2022 and March of 2023, Stern and Ekstein allegedly begin to tell Forme’ employees, specifically the chief medical officer and obstetrics and gynecology physician, that they will be relocated to offices in Monroe.
In March of 2023, things start to get weird between Liebermann and Stern & Ekstein. Again according to the legal complaint:
In March 2023, Stern sent a letter to employees working with Liebermann and operating the urgent care. In the message, Stern indicated he was writing on behalf of Preferred Estates Realty LLC, the Property owner and the operator of Rapid Care Urgent Care, apparently a reference to the urgent care facility, to confirm that the recipient had been asked to leave the Property and that the Property owner now demanded that the recipient vacate the Property immediately
By this notice, Stern and Ekstein blatantly breached their contractual obligations and revealed their fraudulent plan to misappropriate both the Property and the related urgent care business. Specifically, the Defendants have now taken the position that they are the principals of both the property owner and business operator and that Liebermann has no interest in the Property or the business, disregarding Liebermann’s substantial financial investment and status as joint venturer. [Emphasis Added]
After the letter was sent, Stern called the Town of Blooming Grove police to have Liebermann and the employees of the business removed. I have submitted a FOIL request to the police and have requested the phone call from Mr. Stern, as well as any associated notes or documents involving this incident.
But just so everyone is clear: A Village of South Blooming Grove employee called the Town of Blooming Grove Police to have people removed from a building and business involved with one of his scams.
After the police arrived, Liebermann would hire private security to protect the business. To this date, the building is still listed as belonging to Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein’s company.
And Weirder Still …
The weird stuff can be found in the court cases’s exhibits.
In just one example, let’s look at Exhibit 9, a sworn affidavit filed as part of the case provided by Tiffany Rodrigo, a manager at Rapid Care since June of 2022.
On March 12th, 2023, Rodrigo states that she saw Mr. Joel Stern circling the parking lot of the Rapid Care for an hour and fifteen minutes.
If you’ve been to this Rapid Care, you’ll know it’s not a huge building, and it’s not a huge parking lot. So, as dumb as this behavior is, I also have to say the visual of it is pretty comical.
Mr. Stern is joined by Mr. Ekstein, who parks in front of the facility for 40 minutes, but never exits his vehicle.
The Rapid Care facility closes at midnight. The procedure, according to Rodrigo, “is to leave a lockbox containing a bag of medical specimens outside the door of the facility and to then take a photo of the lockbox. When the laboratory representative arrives, the laboratory representative unlocks the lockbox, removes the bag containing the specimens, and takes the bag of specimens to deliver to the laboratory.”
At the end of her shift that evening, Rodrigo observed Joel Stern still sitting in his car. A co-worker put the medical specimens into the lockbox. Understandably, Rodrigo said seeing Mr. Stern sitting in the lot made her nervous.
She said in her affidavit:
Typically, the male laboratory representative who collects the specimen bag knocks on the window and gives me a thumbs up to indicate he has taken the package or, at times, if there is a patient that is still at the facility after midnight, the laboratory representative will wait for the last specimen.
However, on this evening while I was inside the facility, I noticed that a male in a white hooded sweatshirt took the specimens. I did not see his face but he did not appear to be a laboratory representative. Shortly afterward, the usual laboratory representative knocked on the window and advised that there were no specimens. I then contacted the laboratory to verify whether there was an inadvertent double pick-up scheduled, but they verified there had not been and the laboratory did not receive the specimens.
So, who took the specimens?
Rodrigo asserts in the court document that Confidential Assistant to South Blooming Grove Mayor Kalaj, Joel M. Stern, took them.
How did he do so?
Because on March 1st, 2023, according to Rodrigo, both Stren and Ekstein had entered the Rapid Care and took the lockbox keys, among other items.
Although Rodrigo did order new lock box keys, the replacements had not arrived by the evening of the 15th.
Tiffany Rodrigo concludes her affidavit by saying, “Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein have continued to be disruptive to the business at the facility, and have continued to harass employees at the facility. Joel Stern has entered the facility and has thrown paperwork at employees and has called the facility phone number from his cell phone repeatedly after midnight for no business reason. Both Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein have yelled at employees, accusing them of trespassing, and have done so in the presence of customers, and they have continued either parked[sic] their cars outside the facility or circled the parking lot of the facility with the effect of intimidating the staff.”
In the case of Blooming Grove Realty LLC, 815 UC LLC, BNB Management LLC, and John Liebermann v. Rapid Properties LLC, Preferred Estates Realty LLC, Five Star Medical Group Inc., Joel Stern, and Isaac Ekstein, everything was filed in Kings County Court. Once the judge suggested moving the case to Orange County Court, everything was dropped.
Whether or not the dispute was resolved is unknown, as Preferred Estates Realty LLC (Stern and Ekstein) are still listed as building owners.
I’ve reached out to both the Orange County Department of Health, the Orange County DA’s office, and the Town of Blooming Grove Police to see if the actions described by Rodrigo, and others, are being investigated for criminal activity.