Rap star Jay-Z has pulled out of buying a $6.5 million penthouse in TriBeCa, and now the owner is suing two neighbors for sabotaging the deal.
Advertising executive Peter Arnell charges that tenants Lynn Fisher-Hill and Lewis Taffer hung notices in the halls and elevators of the Hudson Street condominium that referred to Jay-Z’s “criminal record and his lifestyle of knives, guns and violence.”
According to the suit Taffer and Fisher-Hill also posted newspaper articles, including one of Jay-Z pleading guilty last year to stabbing a man in December 1999 in a dispute over bootlegged music. The rapper, whose real name is Shawn Carter, was placed on three years probation as part of a plea deal.
Jay-Z pulled out of the penthouse deal before a contract had been signed. He gave no reason for not going through with the purchase. There was no comment from Taffer, Fisher-Hill and Jay-Z on the suit, which was filed last week in Manhattan.
Arnell and his wife, Sara, put the penthouse up for sale last year after buying music mogul Tommy Mottola’s Westchester mansion.
