Nigerian businessman Olufemi Falade named as owner of collapsed New York building that left eight dead

Nigerian landlord Olufemi Falade, who owns the collapsed Brooklyn building, owes over $452,000 in debts and had 98 outstanding violations on the property.

Nigerian businessman Olufemi Falade has been identified as the owner of the Brooklyn building in New York City that collapsed on Wednesday, November 11, killing eight people.

The People’s Gazette reports that Falade had appeared on the city’s Worst Landlords Watchlist six times. Records show he has accumulated about $452,056 in outstanding debts, including $170,000 in Department of Buildings fines, $114,945 in unpaid water bills and $113,526 in property taxes dating back to 2021.

Records from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development also show that the building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue had 98 outstanding housing violations. They included a leaky roof, defective doors, bedbug infestations and exposed wiring.

Falade bought the 96-year-old building in 1999 through Femi Realty Corp. Twenty-five years later, he transferred it to another company he controlled, Isolag Realty Corp., and signed the deed as both seller and buyer.

It is not his first brush with the authorities. In 2006, he was sentenced to 12 days in jail and fined $50,000 for failing to fix more than 1,800 violations at 12 Brooklyn buildings.