Heiress who gave millions to cult suing condo board for measly $160K

The New York Post/March 17, 2015

By Julia Marsh

Multimillionaire Seagram heiress Sara Bronfman is suing her former condo board for a relatively measly $161,000 over a burst pipe.

Sara, who along with her sister Clare Bronfman reportedly gave away $150 million from their family trust funds to a mysterious cult, filed suit against Trump Tower at One Central Park West Tuesday.

She claims the Trump board allegedly forced her to put the six-figure sum in an escrow account for disputed water damages as a condition of selling her $10.75 million apartment.

According to a 2010 Vanity Fair article Sara and Clare tried to conceal their payments to the secretive group NXIVM including $11 million for a 22-seat jet from their liquor magnate father Edgar Bronfman, who was worth over $2 billion when he died in 2013.

That same year a pipe behind Sara’s kitchen sink burst and flooded her neighbors’ units. But the heiress refused to pay for the damages claiming the break occurred in a “common area” behind her wall and therefore the board was responsible for repair costs.

Among the “unjustified charges” billed to Sara by the board are a hotel room where neighbors sought shelter after the flooding and laundering of undergarments of another unit owner, the suit says.

In court papers Sara says the board pressured her into the escrow deposit, then stalled and cashed in when a year-long deadline to resolve the matter expired this month.

“The escrow forfeiture clause is improper and should be voided because it is unconscionable…[and] was induced under duress,” the suit says.

She wants her $161,000 back.

The board’s attorney did not immediately comment. Sara’s lawyer, Adam Leitman Bailey, declined to comment.

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