Bert Dweck Faces Mounting Lawsuits

Bert I. Dweck of Dweck Group is battling mounting lawsuits over allegations of unpaid loans, bounced checks and refusal to return escrow money.

The Brooklyn-based dealmaker is facing seven lawsuits in New York state court. In total, investors and lenders are seeking at least $14.4 million.

Taken together, the cases paint a picture of a broker whose alleged cash crunch spiraled across multiple real estate deals and personal lending relationships. Several lawsuits accuse Dweck of failing to return money that was supposed to remain in escrow accounts, while others allege he solicited funds for deals that either stalled, collapsed or never materialized.

The legal drama is reverberating through Brooklyn’s tight-knit Syrian Jewish, which Dweck and his family are a part of. His father and mother, Isaac Dweck and Marlene Dweck, have also been named in some lawsuits.

The lawsuits began piling up in December, when five companies filed a lawsuit in New York state court alleging he stole $2.8 million tied to three real estate deals: 1526 Grand Concourse in the Bronx, and 4188 and 4910 Broadway in Manhattan.

According to the complaint, each deal followed a similar pattern: Dweck approached investors with an opportunity to acquire a property, the investors wired funds, and Dweck would allegedly disappear with the money. The investors allege Dweck even provided phony documents as part of the deal.

Checks attached in court filing in MORDECHAI SAMET et al v. BERT I DWECK et al

The investors, led by a group called Patriarch President Capital, say Dweck’s lawyer, Jacques Erdos, assisted in the alleged fraud by releasing escrow funds directly to Dweck.

Dweck denied the allegations in a response filing. His attorney declined to comment.

In a statement, Erdos’s lawyer said “Erdos was Dweck’s attorney and disputes the allegations asserted against himself, denies wrongdoing, and believes the claims against himself lack merit.”

The allegations in the Patriarch case were not isolated. Within weeks, another lawsuit surfaced accusing Dweck of soliciting large sums of money for property deals that allegedly never closed.

Two weeks after the Patriarch lawsuit was filed, Bronx supermarket owners Luis Manuel Diaz and Senelda Diaz sued Dweck and alleged associate Mark Benun for fraud.

The Diazes, who own a C-town supermarket in Parkchester, alleged Dweck and Benun had claimed they represented the owner of a neighboring building they wished to purchase. The Diazes sent over $1.44 million to Dweck and Benun. But when the closing on the property occurred in May 2023, Dweck and Benun allegedly never showed up. The actual property owner had no records of payments from the Diazes, according to the lawsuit.

The Diazes allege Dweck and Benun concocted a similar scheme on another property. Dweck and Benun convinced Diazes to enter into a partnership and created an LLC to buy a former Apple Bank at 74 Hugh J. Grant Circle in the Bronx. The Diazes sent over $1.37 million in payments. The Diazes later discovered the LLC never bought the bank and was dissolved in October 2023.

The lawsuit alleges Dweck and Benun have not returned the money. Dweck denied the allegations in a legal filing.

“Mark Benun was not served in this complaint. If and when he is served, he will defend any and all claims relative to the Diaz Group other than selling them a net lease which converted to a sale,” said a spokesperson for Benun in a statement. “Additionally, upon learning of Bert Dweck’s criminal activity, he immediately hired counsel to insulate himself from any and all criminal activities conducted by Bert Dweck. Upon Mark Benun’s discovery, he has found more than five to six contracts which were created by Bert Dweck to include multiple forgeries for the purposes of obtaining funds from escrow. It has come to Mark’s attention as well that there are more than 20 victims.”

Bad checks

As investors accused Dweck of mishandling deal money, lenders were simultaneously alleging he had stopped repaying millions of dollars in personal loans.

Gary Porat of Brooklyn filed a lawsuit in January alleging Dweck owed him nearly $6 million tied to a series of loans dating back to early 2023.

According to the complaint, Porat continued extending credit to Dweck even after earlier loans fell into distress. Dweck allegedly signed confessions of judgment agreeing to repay the amounts owed, and at one point, proposed adding Isaac and Marlene as guarantors on future loans to reassure Porat.

By late 2025, Dweck had already defaulted on portions of the debt, according to the lawsuit. In December 2025, he allegedly defaulted again, leaving roughly $5.88 million outstanding.

Porat further alleged Dweck attempted to cover some payments with bad checks. Between May 24, 2024 and November 19, 2025, 130 checks and ACH transfers totaling roughly $5.5 million were returned or bounced, according to the complaint.

Dweck allegedly attempted to pay another bill with bad checks. Mordechai Samet of Monroe, New York, filed a lawsuit alleging Dweck, his affiliates and family issued checks to Samet with insufficient funds, frozen accounts, and even non-existent accounts, to pay outstanding obligations. The value of the checks total $1.9 million, according to Samet.

Dweck faced yet another lawsuit in February. Bay Group Development alleged it entered into a joint venture with Dweck Group to acquire a property at 6401 Fort Hamilton Parkway, Brooklyn. As part of that transaction, Bay Group provided a $500,000 deposit, but Dweck Group has allegedly failed to return it. Bay Group claims the deposit “may have been misappropriated, converted, or commingled with other funds by Erdos and/or Dweck,” the complaint said.

Update: this story has been updated to include a statement from a representative for Mark Benun.