A noted New York concert violinist is suing a Manhattan businessman, claiming he used her to up the value of a 17th-century violin, and then cut her out of the profits.
Juilliard-trained Eugenia Choi is suing Samer Hamadeh for an unspecified amount, saying he “took advantage of a world-renowned musician’s talent, career, and connections for his own financial gain.”
Hamadeh is the founder and CEO of the on-demand wellness company Zeel.
The papers say Hamadeh approached Choi about finding a rare violin in 2008, with the plan that he would purchase the instrument, and she would then lease and play it to increase its value, by “removing the instrument from obscurity.”
She found a violin made by Italian luthier Giovanni Battista Rogeri, and Hamadeh bought it from a well-known private dealer, Rene Morel, for $353,400, the papers say.
Choi says she leased the instrument from April 2008 to March 2012, paying around $28,878 total to use the violin in performances and recordings.
Hamadeh then requested the violin back in early 2012–breaking their contract– and sold it days later for $500,000, without telling Choi for another three months, the suit says.
But because Hamadeh “was disappointed that the violin had sold for a lower price than he hoped,” he offered Choi less than half of her original cut, of about 7 percent, the suit says.
The suit also notes that, in October 2012, Hamadeh settled a case with the State of New York and coughed up more than $670,000 in unpaid taxes from the 2007 sale of one of his companies, Vault.com.
When Choi alerted Hamadeh that she was left with no choice but to sue, he “told her to sue him and also threatened to bring baseless counterclaims against plaintiff,” the complaint reads.
“This is my client’s sweat equity,” attorney Steven Rappoport told the Post. “The value certainly increased when she played it.”
The Post’s Page Six exclusively revealed in 2013 that Choi was accused of having a love child with then-married Wall Street honcho Todd S. Thompson, after his wife of 25 years Melissa demanded Choi hand over all evidence and court filings “pertaining to the paternity, support or other legal issues with respect to your daughter,” in the couple’s divorce proceedings.
Rappoport would not comment on why it took Choi almost four years to file the suit, simply saying “we filed the papers in a timely manner.”
Hamadeh did not respond to requests for comment.