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Park Avenue
One property that may prove harder to extract cash from:
Cohen's palatial Park Avenue home. Purchased for $5 million in
2005, the sprawling 10th-floor unit used to be three separate
apartments and has four bedrooms. It could be worth $8 million
or more, based on comparable sales.
In late 2015, the Cohens moved the property into a type of
trust designed to limit tax exposure when transferring property
to heirs. The trust structure has tax consequences for typical
mortgages, but those could be dodged if the Cohens took out an
interest-only loan.
In February 2016, Laura Cohen, in her role as a trustee of
the new entity, did just that, taking out a revolving $500,000
home-equity line of credit against the property from First
Republic Bank. It was the first time the family had borrowed
against the property since a loan of more than $2 million 11
years earlier when they bought it, property records show.
There are also Cohen's in-laws, who may pitch in to a
legal-defense effort. Fima and Ania Shusterman, who haven't
responded to requests for comment, emigrated from Ukraine and
built their own taxi empire over decades while helping Cohen
expand his across New York and Chicago. They own three units in
Trump World Tower. In an indication of their willingness to help
those close to them, the couple have lent $20 million to another
Ukranian couple in the taxi business, Semyon and Yasya Shtayner
and their companies.
Richard Kahn
HBRK Associates Inc.
575 Lexington Avenue 4th Floor
New 2
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