A fallout between Isaac Toledano and Israeli backer Yaakov Morad has spiraled into a third lawsuit over South Florida real estate.
Court filings portray dueling claims over two property dealings, but in real life, the bad blood has spilled into family ties, dragging in the divorce between Toledano’s eldest daughter and Morad’s younger brother.
In the latest escalation, Morad’s BH Apirion LLC sued Toledano and four of his affiliates over the SouthPlace City Center megaproject in Cutler Bay, alleging BH Apirion backed the development to the tune of more than $13.5 million starting in 2022, but four years later, Apirion has “nothing to show for it,” according to its complaint.
The suit alleges that Toledano misled Morad, taking advantage of his limited English and leveraging their family connection at the time, promising him equity in the project and other financial returns — none of which materialized.
The complaint was moved to federal court on Monday, after it was first filed in state court on July 6. It came less than a month after Toledano first sued Morad over SouthPlace City Center. In that suit, Toledano claimed Morad is over $720,000 behind on capital calls, though he recently said this amount has climbed to about $2 million.
As the tiff intensifies, Toledano has insisted the pair had a good relationship and for years Morad had nothing but praise for him, but that ended roughly around the time cracks appeared in their familial ties. Now, Morad is trying to turn the family matter into business litigation, Toledano has said.
Morad’s “claims surfaced only within the past year, after divorce proceedings were filed in Miami and Israel involving Morad’s brother,” Toledano said in a statement. “The chronology speaks for itself.”
Yarin Toledano married Netanel Morad in 2022, and their divorce was finalized in December, records show.
Previously, Toledano told The Real Deal that Netanel was violent against Yarin, a claim she has vehemently denied. Recent posts on her Instagram show her with Netanel and their daughter and identify him as “her current obsession,” though in her divorce petition filed last year, she described him as “verbally, emotionally, psychologically, and physically abusive.”
Over the past four years, Toledano skyrocketed to prominence in South Florida real estate, with dozens of marquee projects. His Aventura-based BH Group, which he leads with his wife, Liat Toledano, is co-developing the $1.5 billion SouthPlace City Center with Electra, a subsidiary of Tel Aviv-based Electra Real Estate.
The project is planned for 5,000 residences in 18-story buildings, 650,000 square feet of retail, a 177,000-square-foot medical office building and a 150-key hotel on portions of Southland Mall.
So far, Toledano has maintained a relatively blemish-free reputation with no major disputes with partners in South Florida.
Morad fired the first shot in June, suing over an Aventura office building he says Toledano sold him at an “inflated” price. Toledano denies wrongdoing, arguing the price per share was actually below market.
The SouthPlace dispute cuts deeper, centering on capital calls and whether Morad’s BH Apirion was ever entitled to equity. Toledano says no such deal existed and any equity stake would have required Electra’s sign-off, which it withheld despite his requests, his complaint states.
“Morad signed the funding agreement in 2024 and knew exactly what he signed, a loan/funding agreement, not an equity investment,” Toledano said. “For approximately the past 15 months, Morad has stopped making payments. This is the undisputed fact at the center of the case. … A party in default cannot rewrite a contract simply because he now regrets it.”
According to Toledano’s complaint, BH Apirion agreed to fund 90 percent of BH Group affiliate’s capital calls — uncapped — in exchange for half of future distributions to a Toledano affiliate. But, he claims, Morad soon balked: “This is my last wire. I won’t be able to send more,” Morad allegedly wrote, according to Toledano.
Toledano’s filing lays out an extended message trail showing him reminding Morad of upcoming capital calls, and claims he tried to help Morad cover the shortfall and alleges Morad’s business in Israel faced financial woes.
Morad’s attorneys reject the claim that any payments went unpaid.
Toledano “continued to demand more and more in capital calls without Mr. Morad ever having transparency into the project, a documented equity stake, or any collateral protections,” said Morad’s attorney, Brian Miller of King & Spalding, adding that Toledano wouldn’t even provide wire confirmations showing the money was used as intended.
BH Apirion’s own complaint tells a different story: Toledano hid from Electra that 90 percent of his firms’ capital contributions actually came from BH Apirion. BH Apirion began wiring funds in 2022, before any written agreement and in reliance on their family ties at the time, on the understanding it would be repaid in one to two years with a 50 percent profit share and 8 percent preferred return.
When the deal was finally put in writing in 2024, that preferred return was replaced by loan interest set at the legal minimum.
The complaint also accuses Toledano of pocketing a $489,000 fee from a SouthPlace property purchase and of dipping into BH Apirion’s funds for $56,000 in unrelated expenses and a $25,000 bonus for an employee. At first, Morad’s understanding was he would put in about $7 million, which Toledano confirmed in a text message, allegedly writing, “My word is my word, always remember,” according to BH Apirion’s complaint. Yet, BH Apirion’s payments ballooned by another $6.5 million — while Toledano’s own entity, the complaint says, put in just $1 million.
BH Apirion calls Toledano’s push for Electra’s approval “half-hearted,” alleging he never told Electra that BH Apirion was funding the bulk of Toledano’s side of the deal. At one point, the complaint alleges, Toledano admitted wrongdoing, writing to BH Apirion that he had to approach Electra carefully so as not to “risk Electra taking me out of the deal for violation of the JV agreement I have with them,” BH Apirion says in its complaint.
Electra, not a party to either suit, said the firm and its control of SouthPlace City Center “ is not related to this matter nor subject to any change from any result.”
