Failure To Cough Up $215K In Court-Ordered Homeowner Restitution In Civil Suit Leads To Short Jail Stay For Head Of Long Island Condo Conversion Outfit

From the Office of the New York Attorney General:

• Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman [] announced that Richard T. Mohring, Jr., the developer of the Cambridge Park Condominium on Long Island, was arrested on contempt of court charges for failing to pay $215,000 in restitution to the victims of his and his wife, Deborah Mohring’s fraud.
  
  [The] arrest by the Nassau County Sheriff’s Department comes after the Mohrings failed to abide by three separate court orders last year requiring them to make repairs to the Cambridge Park Condominium, at 711-725 Willis Avenue, Williston Park, New York.
  
  The Mohrings, who live and work in Glen Cove, developed and sold apartments in the Cambridge Park Condominium while promising purchasers that they would make repairs to a retaining wall on the property. That promise has festered for years and to this day the wall remains in danger of imminent collapse.
  
  “By their willful inaction and indifference, Richard and Deborah Mohring put the residents of the Cambridge Park Condominium in danger,” Attorney General Schneiderman said. “What's more, they have failed to pay the money they owe in open defiance of repeated court orders. This office will not stand by when property developers like the Mohrings cheat homebuyers, put their victims in physical danger and flout court orders.”
  
  Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol E. Huff signed warrants for the arrests of Richard Mohring, 58, and Deborah Mohring, 59, last month. Richard Morning, who was released after appearing before the judge, was ordered to make a payment of $50,000 [] or face re-arrest. The arrest warrant against his wife was also vacated pending that deadline.
  
  Attorney General Schneiderman filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court against the Mohrings and their property development company, R & D Willis Avenue, LLC, in March 2011 and established in court that the business partners pocketed the proceeds of the apartment sales while failing to repair the retaining wall.
  
  They also failed to obtain necessary certificates of occupancy for nearly half of the apartments in the condominium, rendering many of them illegal to occupy or rent and virtually impossible to resell.
  
  The Mohrings ignored subsequent court orders to remedy the established fraud and Richard Mohring even filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to get around paying restitution. That filing was dismissed by a federal judge last fall for failure to make all required submissions.

For the press release, see A.G. Schneiderman Announces Arrest Of Long Island Condo Developer For Contempt Of Court (Richard T. Mohrning, Jr. Is Arrested On Long Island after Defying Repeated Court Orders to Pay $215,000 In Restitution; Schneiderman: This Developer Was Arrested For Indifference To The Safety Of His Victims And the Law, Is Still Required to Pay What He Owes).

For an earlier story, see The Real Deal: Court to L.I. developer: pay $215K or go to jail (Condo units lacked certificate of occupancy, retaining wall in danger of collapse):

• A state Supreme Court judge [...] ordered the developers of Cambridge Park Condominium in Williston Park, N.Y., to pay $215,000 within 72 hours for failing to fix a crumbling retaining wall at the 37-unit complex or face up to five days in jail, The Real Deal has learned.
  
  Judge Manuel Mendez ordered the developers, Richard and Deborah Mohring, to pay the funds after state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued the pair for fraud and misrepresentation.
  
  The Mohrings, who operate a company called Mohring & Sons Enterprises in Sea Cliff, N.Y., sold all 37 units at the complex, a conversion of two former rental buildings at 711-725 Willis Avenue, but pocketed all the proceeds and reneged on numerous promises to fix defective construction at the complex, according to the State Attorney General’s office.