N.Y. man will stand trial in Mon View Heights case

“Life-threatening” conditions have been alleged at the West Mifflin apartment complex.

A New York man accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars meant for a West Mifflin subsidized housing complex will stand trial.

Following a two-part hearing, District Judge Richard Olasz Jr. on Friday held the charges against Moshe Silber, including theft, receiving stolen property, conspiracy, risking catastrophe and public nuisance.

Allegheny County Deputy District Attorney John Pittman said there are public safety issues regarding the Mon View Heights apartment complex.

“This case is not about bank accounts, and LLCs,” Pittman said. “This case is about the individuals that live in the Mon View apartments. Our citizens, our neighbors, should not live under these conditions.”

The 326-unit complex is privately owned, but receives federal funds to house low-income tenants.

According to court documents, Silber owned the Mon View Heights property from around December 2022 — buying it for around $17 million — to around September 2024.

Silber attended the hearing virtually from a detainment center in New Jersey.

Those who testified on Friday included Fredrick Schulman, 72, of New York, as well as Kathrine Grove, who worked for Silber, and Detective Jackelyn Weibel, who has been investigating the case.

Silber and Shulman are awaiting sentencing in a separate federal mortgage fraud case. Both men are linked to 11 other “nuisance properties” in this area.

A public nuisance charge for “life-threatening” conditions was filed against the ownership group by detectives with the office of District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. Authorities said they failed a federal inspection late last year.

Charges against a third man, Jonathan Liani, 39, of New York, were withdrawn by the District Attorney’s Office on March 7.

Schulman, who waived a preliminary hearing for this case, said Silber was like a “younger brother” to him, and Silber viewed Schulman as a mentor and a father figure.

They began business together at Mon View in 2022.Schulman said he would sign loan and bank applications without reading the documents.

Schulman told the court he thought he only owned a small portion of the company, and only became aware as legal problems arose that his name and signature were on a number of ownership and loan documents Silber had him sign.

Some bank documents stated he owned 100% of Mon View, even though he was allegedly not involved. Schulman said he signed documents without knowing what they were due to “stupidity” and “trust” in Silber.

Schulman added he had no involvement in the day-to-day operations or finances of Mon View or any other properties. Both the prosecution and the defense gave several instances in which Schulman’s first name was written incorrectly on legal documents.

Silber and Schulman pleaded guilty in federal court in New Jersey last year to participating in an extensive, multi-year mortgage fraud conspiracy to obtain $119 million in loans, according to TribLive.

On March 18, Silber was ordered to serve 30 months in federal prison and three years supervised release. Schulman was sentenced to 12 months and one day of incarceration and one year supervised release — with nine months of that on house arrest.

Grove testified that she had made Silber aware of deteriorating conditions at Mon View and stated there was a deficit in the housing complex’s bank accounts due to low income and high expenses as well as issues with on-the-ground employees.

“I never physically visited the property, however, my direct reports did, and what they reported to me was raccoons, sewer backups,” Grove said. “One of them referred to the property as they have never seen anything like this in their career. Another statement said it looked like a missile hit the property.”

Weibel, who has expertise in fraud, testified as to the web of LLCs and bank accounts tied to the property. She stated that an out-of-state construction company that does not do work in Pennsylvania, according to its website, was getting paid to allegedly do the work at the property.

Additionally, Weibel said the Mon View account was often overdrawn with funds going to several other LLCs connected to Silber that were supposed to go to Mon View Heights to improve the conditions. Schulman and Silber are accused of funneling $580,000 in loan money to around 25 LLCs.

Silber’s attorney, Tina Miller, argued many of the problems at the property occurred or worsened after Silber had to stop managing it due to the federal case.

She also argued the expenses coming out of the Mon View account were legitimate property maintenance costs, and cited instances in which the other various LLCs put money into the account.

After the preliminary hearing, Miller said she plans to file a habeas petition asking the court to review the case as a chance to challenge the probable cause.

“I don’t believe, as I argued, that there is any evidence of theft, and so as soon as he’s arraigned, I will file the habeas motion and move to dismiss the case,” Miller said. “Then the judge will have a hearing.”

A formal arraignment for Silber has been scheduled for 11 a.m. May 15.

TribLive contributed to this story.