Eventually, Berger was awarded $33 million in compensatory damages, but was unable to collect the judgment.
In 2012, Berger and other investors sued the Philadelphia office of the Chicago-based commercial real estate broker Cushman & Wakefield, and the Philadelphia law firms of Cozen O’Connor and Bank Rome LLP in a New York federal court, alleging that they conned foreign investors into financing the project with inflated appraisals and false marketing. In 2013, the district court ruled that the action should be tried in Philadelphia, not New York, and the case was transferred there.
The defendants were brought into the suit by virtue of their connection to Charles M. Naselsky, a former real estate lawyer at Cozen O’Connor and Blank Rome who marketed the River City Project, utilizing a $77 million appraisal offered by Cushman & Wakefield. In 2012, Naselsky was convicted of wire fraud and tax evasion, and sentenced to 70 months (five years and eight months) in prison.
Both law firms have filed motions for summary judgement, seeking to have the suit tossed out of court.
