Ivanka Trump and business partner Moshe Lax, who is the subject of numerous lawsuits. Image by Getty Images

By Aiden Pink February 21, 2018

Police in a suburb of New York City suspect arson in a December house fire on a property tied to Moshe Lax, a longtime friend and former business partner of Ivanka Trump who is the subject of several lawsuits and a multi-million-dollar IRS judgment.

The home in Monsey was owned by Lax’s family until it was sold in 2014 to an entity tied to the family of Baruch Rosenfeld, a businessman with numerous and byzantine ties to Lax and his businesses.

According to GQ, which published a story on Wednesday summarizing the case, Lax had been loaned around $1.6 million by a man named Michael Goldenberg to help Lax set up a new business after Trump stepped away from the jewelry line that they started together. Rosenberg co-signed the loan, along with Lax’s wife. When Lax allegedly did not make good on the loan repayments, Goldenberg sued — but were thwarted because the debt had been transferred to a corporation controlled by Rosenfeld.

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Goldenberg sued, calling the arrangement “highly suspect” and suggested that Lax and Rosenfeld, who continued to exchange money and properties, may have broken fraud laws. And then, in December, Rosenfeld’s house — which was once owned by Lax — burned down.

The Rockland County Sheriff’s Department declined to explain to GQ why they suspect arson and rejected a Freedom of Information request, citing an ongoing investigation.

Lax, who claims to have introduced Trump to her husband Jared Kushner, has either been sued personally or through his companies several times over numerous multi-million-dollar business deals gone bad, as well as by lawyers who alleged that they never received payments they were owed for defending him. Despite these issues, Trump admitted in a deposition that she continued to rely on his business advice after their joint diamond project ended.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

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