Anthony Marrone, former head of construction at the now-defunct luxury condo developer HFZ Capital Group, has pleaded guilty to charges of attempted grand larceny and falsifying business records in the sprawling fraud case against executives at the firm.
Marrone pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of attempted grand larceny in the third degree and 14 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, all of which are felonies, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. He is expected to be sentenced April 23 to three years of probation on each charge, which will run concurrently, and he will waive his right to appeal as well, the office said.
Sanford Nolan Talkin, Marrone’s attorney, declined to comment on the plea.
Marrone’s guilty plea, first reported by The Real Deal, comes about seven months after HFZ Capital Group pleaded guilty as a company to tax fraud and grand larceny charges in the case, which centers on an alleged $86 million fraud scheme. HFZ was sentenced to an unconditional discharge, essentially meaning its only punishment is the conviction itself. HFZ project manager Louis Della-Peruta also pleaded guilty in May to a misdemeanor charge of falsifying business records and received a $1,000 fine.
Marrone was indicted in February 2024 along with former HFZ Managing Principal Nir Meir, whom the district attorney’s office has accused of masterminding the scheme and whose case is ongoing. His attorney, Oliver Storch, stressed that Marrone’s guilty plea “has no impact” on Meir, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and remains in custody on Rikers Island.
Former Omnibuild co-CEO John Mingione and Omnibuild accountant Kevin Stewart were indicted in the case as well. Omnibuild served as HFZ’s construction manager on The XI, its high-profile luxury condo project by the High Line, and the firm has aggressively maintained its innocence in the case, arguing that it repeatedly tried to warn others of issues at the project but was rebuffed at every turn.
The scheme at the center of the HFZ case include allegations of forging bank statements to inflate the company’s assets, spending funds meant for The XI on other projects and embezzling money for a San Francisco project that did not exist, according to the district attorney’s office.
