Lindsay Lohan’s brother Michael Lohan Jr. is among several other individuals who were accused of overcharging rent in New York City.
According to court documents obtained by Luxury Handbag Shopping on Thursday, December 11, Michael, 37, was named in a lawsuit alongside several other individuals who are connected to a company named Peak Capital.
The docs stated that the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (HCR) claimed that Peak Capital was illegally deregulating rent-stabilized apartments to make a profit. Peak Capital allegedly renovated old housing “to make the buildings aesthetically attractive to New Yorkers willing to pay high rents.”
The HRC argued that Peak Capital’s buildings in question “were not in substandard or seriously deteriorated condition,” meaning the business “deprived the tenants of those apartments of their rights under the rent stabilization laws, overcharged those tenants and misrepresented the regulatory status of those apartments to thousands of consumers through deceptive apartment listings.”
The HRC is asking for Peak Capital to “comply with the rent stabilization laws” by registering the homes’ rent-stabilized status and issuing rent-stabilized leases to tenants at the appropriate rate. They are also seeking “restitution of overcharged rents to affected tenants, as well as equitable relief and statutory penalties” for the alleged “illegal business practices.”
Peak Capital was founded in 2017 by Juan David Gomez and Alex Rabin, who were also named in the lawsuit. Michael served as a passive investor and, in some instances, a loan guarantor. The filing alleged that Michael is an agent that “receives rent or is entitled to receive rent from the complaint properties.”
“Yes, his last name is Lohan — and it has nothing to do with this lawsuit or with the professional career Michael has built independently,” Hank Sheinkopf, president of Balanced Housing Solutions (BHS), told Us in a written statement. “He is not a principal of Peak Capital Advisors and has never held an operational role. His involvement was limited and non-operational, which is why he is not named in our federal complaint. Repeating his name may be provocative, but it does not make him relevant.”
Michael Jr. is one of Lindsay’s younger siblings. Lindsay, 39, is the eldest daughter of Dina and Michael Lohan, who also share Michael Jr., Ali Lohan and Dakota “Cody” Lohan.
Much like his older sister, Michael Jr. pursued opportunities in the entertainment industry before getting into real estate. He had a cameo in his sister’s movie The Parent Trap and previously worked as a child model.
After studying finance in college, Michael Jr. went on to cofound Vigme, which is an app that lets users shop influencers’ and celebrities’ virtual closets.
In his personal life, Michael Jr. is married to wife Nina Ginsberg. The couple share a daughter, Isabel Scarlet, whom they welcomed in June 2021.
In a 2014 interview with the New York Post, Michael Jr. shared that he didn’t see himself following in his famous sister’s footsteps.
“I don’t like being at the forefront,” he explained. “It’s not really my cup of tea.”
As Lindsay grappled with fame at a young age, she acknowledged that her siblings had a rough time coping with it.
“Growing up, my siblings definitely had it harder than most kids their age,” she told Vogue in 2022. “Because I was such a public figure that they couldn’t really escape any of the results of the things I did, by mistake, in front of the public eye.”
