The legal fight between Steven Ostad and his brothers Michael and Edward is getting heated.
An attorney for Steven accused his brothers of harassing and intimidating a key witness in the case through intermediaries. Counsel for the defendants rejected the allegations, calling them a desperate resort and “defamatory.”
The brothers are battling for control of 10 rental properties and a lending arm called Flatiron Capital. The two older brothers, both former urologists, originally sued Steven in April 2025. They hoped to dissolve companies the three were partners in, but said Steven was standing in the way. They also accused him of “a lifelong history of serious personal issues and self-destructive behaviors.”
Steven fired back in April, saying his brothers were artificially defaulting the value of their real estate by taking rents in cash and depositing them to personal accounts. The brothers have denied the allegations through attorneys.
The witness in question for the latest legal squabble is Amram Tehrani, who according to court documents, is a former employee of Michael and Edward Ostad. In a letter to the court, Leo Jacobs, a lawyer for Steven, said Tehrani “possesses critical firsthand knowledge regarding the Brothers’ scheme to collect cash rents off the books of company entities, their commingling of funds, and their fabrication of rental records.”
The allegations of witness tampering come on the heels of other incendiary claims from Steven. He claims he was unfairly excluded from a real estate portfolio and lending business he invested in while his brothers skimmed money off the top of “bags of cash.”
Jacobs, who is newly representing Steven after a change in counsel, asked the court for a protective order for Tehrani. He said three people had reached out to Tehrani and “pressured him” to meet with his brothers or their representatives.
“Mr. Tehrani has expressed fear for his personal safety as a direct consequence of this
campaign of pressure, intimidation and harassment,” Jacobs wrote.
In response, Glen Lenihan, an attorney for Micheal and Edward with Oved & Oved, accused Jacobs of “weaponizing the judicial process through the petty, ineffective, ambush style litigation tactics.”
Lenihan said there is no evidence to support that these three people reached out to Steven Ostad on behalf of his brothers.
“The Brothers reject this unsubstantiated allegation. Yet, even if this were true, which it is not, such conduct is entirely proper,” he wrote.
After Tehrani retained a lawyer, his attorney took a more reserved tone and did not supply any allegations of improper conduct.
“We respectfully request that you direct all communications to Mr. Tehrani regarding this matter to my attention,” Adam Felsenstein with Tannenbaum Helpern, wrote to the brothers’ counsel. “We further request that you make no attempt to contact Mr. Tehrani through a third-party or intermediary.”
In response to a request for comment Jacobs said, “our obligation as new counsel was to put the court on notice; here that is obligation enough.”
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