'SLUM BUM' HIT WITH RICO SUIT

By TOM TOPOUSIS- NY Post

July 12, 2007 -- One of the city's largest landlords was slapped yesterday with a federal racketeering lawsuit, claiming the company is waging "an attack" on affordable housing with thousands of illegal evictions aimed at jacking up rents beyond what the law allows.

The RICO lawsuit, filed by a group of tenants, accuses the Pinnacle Group and its chief officer, Joel Wiener, of "corporate slumlording" by hiring a legion of lawyers, who turned out more than 5,000 eviction notices in just over two years.
"This is not another case of landlords' penny-pinching," said lawyer Richard Levy, of Jenner & Block, the firm representing the tenants.
"This corporation has made what can be called an attack on affordable housing."
Pinnacle owns 420 buildings, mostly in upper Manhattan and parts of The Bronx, with 21,000 apartments.
Levy said Pinnacle, and its financing partner, the Praedium Group, have targeted "undervalued" buildings with high concentrations of rent-stabilized apartments. The suit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act accuses Pinnacle of using illegal tactics to evict tenants in order to jack up rents.

The lawsuit has the backing of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, both of whom joined a press conference by telephone yesterday to announce the action filed in federal court.
Gotbaum said Pinnacle is waging "a coordinated plan to harass tenants and then flip the apartments at market rate."
Pinnacle spokesman Kenneth Fisher called the claims "nonsense." He said the lawsuit was "instigated by a woman whose mother was arrested for vandalizing an elevator in a Pinnacle building and with whom we are currently in litigation."

Fisher said Pinnacle has acted legally and has not filed more eviction notices than is common among city landlords.
"Pinnacle is proud of its record of providing safe and affordable housing for thousands of New York families, and we are confident that this lawsuit . . . will be found to be without merit," Fisher said.
Levy said that in addition to the eviction strategy, Pinnacle has vastly inflated costs of repairs and improvements at its buildings in order to justify huge rent increases.

Andreas Mares-Muro, a tenant in a Pinnacle-owned building on Riverside Drive and 141st Street, said the rent on his apartment was raised prior to his moving in from $648 to $1,275, which violated rent-stabilization laws.
Pinnacle bought the building in 2005 but has refused to correct the rent overcharges, said Mares-Muro, one of the tenants bringing suit.
tom.topousis@nypost.com