A Mount Vernon businessman is suing his brothers and trying to dissolve the family company over alleged misuse of funds.
Dino Leva claims that Enzo, James and Renato Leva Jr. are mismanaging DEJR Realty LLC, in a petition filed last month in Westchester Supreme Court.
They “engaged in ongoing, surreptitious and unauthorized use and misuse of funds properly belonging to the company,” Dino alleges, and as a result “the company is longer a profitable business.”
The brothers are four of the eight children of Renato Leva, an Italian immigrant who established Chalgo Paint Co., a successful contracting business in Mount Vernon. He died in 2018.
DEJR Realty was formed in 2001 to buy, lease and manage an industrial building at 615 Columbus Ave., Mount Vernon. The brothers each held a 25% interest in the company, according to the petition, and served as co-general managers.
Dino claims that the company has not distributed cash flow from operations, as required annually by the operating agreement.
He also alleges that his brothers have made improper distributions to themselves from a Key Bank account, used company income to pay for personal obligations, failed to pay company debts, and “caused monthly rental payments” to be paid late or skipped altogether.
The alleged rent-skipper is not identified, but Every Supply Co. Inc., a building materials and supplies business, operates at the Columbus Avenue location. Enzo Leva is the chief executive officer, according to a state corporation record.
Dino also claims he has not been allowed to participate in business operations, even though he has never been formally removed as a general manager.
He is demanding that DEJR Realty be dissolved, because it is unprofitable. He is also demanding an accounting of rents and transactions, a court order restraining his brothers from diverting rents, and the appointment of a receiver to close out the business.
His brothers, the petition states, “cannot be trusted to wind up the company”™s affairs in good faith and in keeping with their fiduciary duties.”
This is not the Leva”™s first interfamily squabble. In 2000, Renato Leva, the patriarch, sued his sons and Lucky Six and Co., a partnership he and his sons formed in 1997 to buy and rent cooperative apartments.
The senior Leva was seeking repayment of $46,000 he had loaned to Lucky Six. Court records to do not indicate whether the dispute was resolved.
An attempt to reach the brothers for comment about Dino”™s allegations was unsuccessful.
White Plains attorney Julie Pechersky Plitt represents Dino Leva.
