A couple that is suing a New Canaan woman—accusing her of fraud and deceptive trade practices—is now seeking to consolidate that lawsuit with an earlier one in which the same local woman had named them as defendants.
The lawsuit that real estate agent Ruth Jones brought one year ago against the couple—Moshira Soliman, once a close friend, and Soliman’s husband Robert Deak—alleges that they failed to pay her an agreed-upon commission following the sale of several properties in New Canaan, according to a Motion To Consolidate filed Nov. 18 in Stamford Superior Court.
In March, Soliman and Deak filed their own civil lawsuit with a very different read on the same set of facts. Trying the issues separately “would serve no useful purpose, and would result in a duplication of judicial resources given the substantial overlap in the factual and legal issues,” according to the motion.
“Essentially, the legal issues involved in both lawsuits flow from a series of alleged misrepresentations by Jones, all arising during the same time period, and all arising from Jones’ desperate attempts to extract money from Deak and Soliman,” the motion said.
The new filing marks latest development in an unusual case that paints Jones as a crooked real estate professional who began borrowing increasingly large sums of money while pitching a sham TV show and instructing the couple to purchase properties she herself had owned and controlled, and were to be sold in bankruptcy.
Jones’s attorney, Stamford-based John Harness, could not immediately be reached for comment. A lawyer representing Soliman and Deak, Monte Frank of New Haven-based Cohen & Wolf, also could not immediately be reached for comment.
The problems between the two parties appear to have started in early 2013, when Jones—friends with Soliman for some 30 years—phoned her “begging for help” and came to the couple’s home in Washington, DC, according to the complaint filed March 23 on behalf of Soliman and Deak.
“Jones spoke of her financial woes during her January 2013 Washington DC visit and asked Soliman for a loan so that Jones could ‘take care of Jones’ elderly mother and provide food for the table,’ ” the complaint said. “Soliman loaned $20,000 to Jones, who promised to pay the money back when she received a real estate commission check that she was expecting for the sale of a commercial property.”
Jones through companies she had established then “engaged in a concerted scheme as real estate agent, property manager, small developer and businesswoman to divest them of millions of dollars through a sham television production concept” and investment structure.
Specifically, Jones discussed the production of a television series that would be similar to “This Old House” and would focus on eco-friendly and energy-efficient “green” technology as applied to renovated homes in New Canaan.
“As explained to Soliman, Jones had a plan to rise to the top of the New Canaan real estate community, a place which she once coveted, to (in her words) ‘show those New Canaan bitches’ what she was capable of achieving,” the complaint said.
The show was to be called “This Green House,” and a man identified as a “partner” of Jones later presented the concept of co-production.
However, according to the complaint, the first “distressed properties” targeted for production “turned out to be properties which Jones or her solely owned limited liability companies were about to lose through auction by the trustee in Jones’ pending bankruptcy.”
According to the suit, Jones during this period—and without telling Deak or Soliman—invested some $100,000 with her partner as a deposit on a Stratford gas station that would be converted into a production studio.
Jones then “leveraged Deak and Soliman’s resources” to buy her own properties out of bankruptcy in order to salvage that same $100,000 deposit. Because her partner could not garner commitments from additional investors, Jones was in danger of losing her deposit, and she proposed that the couple purchase the “distressed properties” that she formerly had owned or controlled as sites where “This Green House” could be produced, according to the complaint.
When Jones and her partner then asked Deak and Soliman for a $300,000 “production fee” in order to fund production of the would-be TV show, they declined.
Then “Jones brought in Christopher Whittle and claimed that he was an experienced producer who would require a large upfront fee of several hundred thousand dollars,” the complaint said. “Upon further inquiry, Deak and Soliman learned that Whittle was Jones’ cousin’s husband and was a carpenter and actor with no production experience.”
After the couple said they wouldn’t work with Whittle, Jones presented a man she claimed was an “experienced media producer from Rhode Island,” the complaint said. He turned out to be a plumbing contractor who had worked with Jones in the past, the complaint said.
“At this point, Deak and Soliman lost interest in exploring the production company further and realized that the scheme as originally advanced was fraudulent and probably illegal,” the complaint said.
Jones then abandoned the TV show idea and, in March 2013, convinced the couple to loan her a total of $85,000, saying she “was about to become homeless” because her Beacon Hill Lane had been foreclosed upon, the complaint said.
“Jones promised repayment of these advances and loans from the proceeds of a large commission check that Jones repeatedly claimed was due to her and was to arrive as soon as she was finished with her bankruptcy,” the complaint said. Jones would eventually produce a check in the amount of $438,350 which ultimately was used to purchase the property at 102 Locust Ave. for Jones.
That property was one of six that the couple had acquired under a company they established, and Jones later claimed that she was due 50 percent of net proceeds from the sale of the properties, the complaint said. (The other properties are at 75 Parade Hill Road, 29 Strawberry Hill Road, 41 Hillside Ave., 139 River St. and 50 Urban St., according to Jones’s lawsuit.)
“This wrongful predatory posture asserted by Jones resulted in suit” against Deak and Soliman, the complaint said.
“The Jones v. Deak lawsuit is fiction and, as claimed by the plaintiffs, is part of the defendants’ continuing immoral, unscrupulous and predatory business practice and conduct,” it said.
The complaint goes on to list a handful of other lawsuits that name Jones or companies she had created, saying they are “exemplary of some, but not all of Jones’ … immoral, unscrupulous and oppressive conduct.”
The lawsuit specifically accuses Jones of fraud and violations of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act.
According to the Connecticut Judicial Branch, a status conference in the case is scheduled for Thursday.
Forget a tv show–this would make an excellent movie!