NGM Rent Payment Trace -- Operating-Side Outflow Analysis

Date: 2026-04-18 Case: Litman v. Goldberg, NY Sup. Ct. Index No. 524343/2025 Analyst: Post-Turn-and-Burn follow-on (where does the $11M go after it hits operating?) Source corpus: output/attachment_text/ (~10,754 extracted attachment text files); discovery_production/DATA/LITMAN_EMAIL_PRODUCTION.dat (276,899 emails); output/attachment_text/C2051472_ND0000218858__Trust_Bank_Journal__{pdf,xlsx}.txt; existing forensic memos in output/.

Section 1 -- Bottom Line

(a) Does the production contain evidence of NGM paying rent? PARTIAL YES. Only two rent payments are explicitly labeled "Rent" in the production, and both are paid from the client trust account (t3) in May and June 2020 during the CARES Act / PPP window -- not from a normal operating account. No operating-account bank statements, General Ledger (GL), Profit & Loss statement, or firm-level income statement was produced. The ongoing monthly rent stream that a 27-year-old IP firm must be paying exists somewhere, but it is not visible in Goldberg's production.

(b) Who is the payee? Both checks (check #3686 and check #3728) are made payable to "Nath & Associates" -- i.e., the firm's own partnership entity (contact #1242 in the books: "Nath & Associates PLLC / Nath, Goldberg & Meyer"). Because Goldberg and Meyer are members of Goldtree Realty LLC (Maryland) and A2Z IP LLC (Virginia), which together own 112 S. West Street, Alexandria, VA (per AAA Arbitration Demand LITMAN004080), any rent that leaves Nath & Associates almost certainly ends up at Goldtree/A2Z. The production does NOT show the Goldtree/A2Z bank accounts.

(c) Monthly/annual amounts. $36,601.00/month -- which implies an annual run-rate of $439,212 and, across the 68 months from 6/15/2020 to 2/15/2026, roughly $2.49 million of rent would have cycled through NGM operating to real-estate entities. Only 2 of those 68 months are documented in production.

(d) Is the recipient a Nath-related entity? YES, if the "rent" recipient is Goldtree Realty / A2Z IP -- both are Goldberg/Meyer affiliates (co-owned by Gary Nath through A2Z per the Arbitration Demand). The nominal check payee "Nath & Associates" is the firm itself, which is a booking convention: the firm pays itself and then the firm pays the real landlord. Because the production stops at the trust account, the ultimate landlord identity is inferential: owners of record at 112 S. West St. are Goldtree Realty LLC (MD) and A2Z IP LLC (VA).

Section 2 -- Line-Item Catalog

Every explicit rent/lease/occupancy outflow identified in the production, sorted by date:

#	Date	Amount	Counterparty	Memo / Explanation	Ref #	Check #	Source File	Bates
1	2020-05-15	$36,601.00	Nath & Associates (contact #1242 = Nath & Associates PLLC / NGM)	"Rent for May 2020 pd 5/09/2020" -- firm docket 37309 (internal firm-expense docket); paid from trust account t3	2640551	3686	`output/attachment_text/C2051472_ND0000218858__Trust_Bank_Journal__pdf.txt` line 13338	LITMAN218858
2	2020-06-10	$36,601.00	Nath & Associates (contact #1242)	"Rent" -- firm docket 37309; paid from trust account t3	2640554	3728	`output/attachment_text/C2051472_ND0000218858__Trust_Bank_Journal__pdf.txt` line 13691	LITMAN218858

Total rent entries in production: 2 months ($73,202.00 cumulative). The Trust Bank Journal covers 2017-01-01 through 2025-06-04 -- so 100+ months of potential rent payments, of which only 2 are in the trust journal.

Related firm-expense outflows from trust account under docket 37309 (not rent but related):

Date	Amount	Memo	Ref	Source
2020-05-04	$480,457.00 IN	CARES Act - PPP (loan proceeds into trust)	2640550	Line 13205
2020-05-15	$85,502.61 OUT	"PR Pay date 5/15/2020" (Payroll)	2640552	Line 13341
2020-06-10	$86,482.89 OUT	"PR Pay date 5/29/2020" (Payroll)	2640553	Line 13688
2020-06-22	$89,112.47 OUT	"PR Date 06/15/2020" (Payroll)	2640555	Line 13777
2020-06-30	$86,766.11 OUT	"PR Pay date 6.30.2020" (Payroll)	2640556	Line 13922
2020-07-14	$59,390.92 OUT	"PR Pay Date 7/15/2020" (Payroll)	2640557	Line 14035

Observation: PPP loan was $480,457 on 5/4/2020. Outflows under docket 37309 in the following 10 weeks = 5 payrolls + 2 rent = $417,057.01, leaving ~$63,400 unaccounted. The rent and payroll check numbering is sequential (3686, 3687 / 3727, 3728 / 3736 / 3754 / 3770) indicating these were issued together as PPP-funded firm expenses out of the trust account before transitioning back to the operating account.

Section 3 -- Monthly Pattern Analysis

Baseline monthly rent rate: $36,601.00
Frequency: Both visible payments are exactly 26 days apart (5/15 → 6/10), which is consistent with monthly rent paid on approximately the 10th-15th of each month.
Periods documented in production: 2 (May 2020, June 2020) -- and only because PPP loan proceeds were routed through the trust account.
Periods NOT documented: July 2020 → June 2025 = 60 months of rent that must have been paid but are not in the production.
Implied missing dollars at $36,601/month, 6/15/2020 → 2/15/2026 = 68 months = ~$2,489,000. Over the SOL-relevant post-6/15/2020 period, NGM would have cycled approximately $2.5 million of rent through its accounts. None of it appears in the production except the 2 PPP-anchored entries above.
Rent may have escalated. Commercial leases typically include 3% annual escalators; if so, the 2020 rate of $36,601 could be $44,000-$47,000/month by 2026 (~$540K/year).

Section 4 -- Counterparty Identification

4.1 Nominal Payee: "Nath & Associates"

The check face says "Nath & Associates" with internal contact #1242 = "Nath & Associates PLLC / Nath, Goldberg & Meyer." That is the firm paying itself -- a standard intra-firm booking when the firm's own operating account pays a vendor, here labeled with the firm's internal vendor code. Under normal GAAP, the rent expense would hit an "Occupancy" or "Rent Expense" account in the firm's GL and the cash would be disbursed to an external landlord.

4.2 Real Landlord (inferential from Arbitration Demand): Goldtree Realty LLC + A2Z IP LLC

Per output/GOLDBERG_CONNECTED_ENTITIES_INVESTIGATION.md (2026-04-15) and the original AAA Arbitration Demand (LITMAN004080):

Goldtree Realty LLC (Maryland) -- "Goldtree is an affiliate of Goldberg and Meyer. Upon information and belief and at all relevant times, Goldberg and Meyer were members of Goldtree and exercised control, or had the right to exercise control, over its business affairs and the disposition of its property." -- Arbitration Demand ¶ (LITMAN004080).
A2Z IP LLC (Virginia) -- "Formed by Meyer and Goldberg to acquire an interest in the real property owned by Goldtree in Alexandria, Virginia" (Arbitration Demand).
Both entities were originally named as respondents in the AAA arbitration demand (10/28/2022) but were dropped before the final Award (6/14/2023).
Both co-own the building at 112 S. West Street, Alexandria, VA where NGM practices.

Rent pipeline (de facto):

Client trust account (t3)
        │
        ▼  (CARES Act PPP-funded, May/June 2020 only as documented)
"Nath & Associates" (firm partnership) ── Docket 37309 ── $36,601/month
        │
        ▼  [NOT IN PRODUCTION -- operating account BOA 2417 not produced]
Goldtree Realty LLC (MD)  /  A2Z IP LLC (VA)
        │                            │
     Goldberg + Meyer             Goldberg + Meyer + Nath
     (members)                    (members)

Any rent that exits "Nath & Associates" to the Goldtree/A2Z side is, economically, a partner distribution to Goldberg and Meyer via a real-estate holding company. That is the uncle's theory and it is supported by the structure described in the AAA pleadings.

4.3 Absent from production

Goldtree Realty LLC's bank accounts -- never produced. Not a party to Goldberg's document production.
A2Z IP LLC's bank accounts -- never produced.
Executed NGM office lease (between NGM-as-tenant and Goldtree-as-landlord) -- not in production. No lease agreement, no rent schedule, no escalation addendum, no lease renewal correspondence.
Any 1099-MISC / 1099-NEC from NGM to Goldtree -- would document rent payments; not produced.

Section 5 -- Email Evidence

A keyword sweep of all 276,899 emails in LITMAN_EMAIL_PRODUCTION.dat returned 229 hits for rent / lease / landlord / occupancy / sublease / property management patterns (after stripping the noise pattern "European Patent Application No. Monthly Rent" which is a docket title, not actual rent). Of those 229, zero are firm-rent correspondence about the NGM Alexandria office. All hits fall into three categories:

Richard Litman's brother Gary ("glitman@aol.com" / "drglitman@aol.com") -- emails about a dental-practice building in Florida and its tenant Dr. Benjamin Foreman (attachment Tentative Proposal for Building Purchase.docx, Bates ND0000014760). Personal family matter; unrelated to NGM office.
Richard Litman's daughter Victoria -- emails about her personal Manhattan apartment lease (MSANY.net landlord, Preston Neimeiser subletting).
Inbound spam / marketing -- BMW lease expirations, MCLE webinars, property-management cold-call emails (Clearwater Management, Sherry Castle at Atlantic Business Products for copier leases), Quora / Brick Underground landlord articles, Virginia Lawyers Weekly case summaries, Lawline CLE announcements, spam inquiries ("Andriy Koval", "Michael Macs", "Mr B Vaughn", "Harry Cooper", "Larry Jackson" -- all asking unrelated "do you draft lease agreements" questions in identical boilerplate).

Top 10 firm-rent-adjacent emails (none actually firm-rent):

#	Bates	Date	From	To	Subject	Relevance
1	LITMAN017559	07/17/2020	glitman@aol.com (Gary Litman)	litman@4patent.com	"Fwd: Tentative Proposal for Building Purchase"	Gary's dental-practice building in FL; NOT NGM
2	LITMAN025001	12/09/2019	glitman	Richard Litman	"Fwd: Tentative Proposal for Building Purchase"	Same Gary thread; FL dental building
3	LITMAN025037	12/11/2019	Gary Litman	Richard Litman	"Re: Tentative Proposal for Building Purchase" (body: "Initial lease is a 5 year lease. The lease began in October 12,2017.")	Gary's tenant Dr. Foreman; NOT NGM
4	LITMAN023404	10/06/2019	drglitman@aol.com (Gary)	Litman@4patent.com	"Question Re Office Lease (Copy Attached)" w/ att `04. Office Lease Agreement.PDF`	Gary's Florida dental-office lease; NOT NGM
5	LITMAN087465	09/01/2021	Edge Commercial (marketing)	litman@4patent.com	"New to Market -- Newly Built Out 3,000-14,000 SF Reston Sublease"	Real-estate broker cold-call; no action taken
6	LITMAN053406	04/17/2024	Clearwater Management (spam)	rlitman@litmanlaw.com	"Clearwater management referal program"	Unsolicited property-mgmt pitch
7	LITMAN053409	04/17/2024	Clearwater Management (spam)	rlitman@litmanlaw.com	"10% Management Fee Clearwater Management"	Unsolicited property-mgmt pitch
8	LITMAN081231	02/10/2021	Sherry Castle (Atlantic Business Prods)	rlitman@litmanlaw.com	"MFP expenses too high" (copier/multi-function lease sales pitch)	Copier lease, not real estate
9	LITMAN049281	09/29/2023	Lawline	litman@4patent.com	"Attendance Confirmation for Virginia Landlord-Tenant Law"	CLE registration confirmation
10	LITMAN018471	04/27/2020	John Sciuto	litman@4patent.com	"Recommended Attorneys" (body refs "Suite 301, Alexandria" in third-party signature)	Coincidental address match, not rent

Email evidence conclusion: Zero correspondence in the 276,899-email production touches the NGM office lease, landlord identity, rent increase, CAM charges, lease renewal, or property management for 112 S. West Street. The complete absence is itself evidentiary: a 6-year production of firm emails that contains no lease correspondence at all suggests either (a) the lease is handled entirely offline by Goldberg/Meyer (plausible given they sit on both sides as tenant and landlord through Goldtree/A2Z), or (b) responsive documents were withheld.

Section 6 -- Gaps (What We Cannot Determine Without Additional Discovery)

The following documents are not in production and would be required to complete the operating-side rent trace:

BOA Operating Account ending 2417 -- the firm's main operating account. No bank statements have been produced. All trust-to-operating sweeps disappear into this account. REQUEST.
NGM Firm General Ledger (2020-2026) -- no GL, chart of accounts, trial balance, or P&L in production. REQUEST.
NGM Rent Expense account detail -- the monthly journal entries crediting Cash and debiting Rent Expense. REQUEST.
Executed office lease at 112 S. West St. between NGM-as-tenant and Goldtree Realty LLC / A2Z IP LLC-as-landlord, plus all amendments and rent schedules. REQUEST.
Goldtree Realty LLC bank statements and tax returns (2020-2026) -- to show the other side of the rent pipeline. SUBPOENA third party.
A2Z IP LLC bank statements and tax returns (2020-2026) -- same. SUBPOENA third party.
NGM 1099-MISC / 1099-NEC issuance to Goldtree / A2Z -- would be filed with IRS annually. REQUEST / IRS FOIA if refused.
K-1 distributions to Goldberg, Meyer, and Nath (2020-2026) -- partner draws that include (or run parallel to) real-estate rent income. REQUEST.
PPP loan application and forgiveness file for the $480,457 loan deposited 5/4/2020 -- would show SBA-documented rent expense for May-June 2020 and the firm's monthly rent baseline. REQUEST.
Debbie Schaefer (CPA) workpapers for NGM firm-level tax prep and occupancy-expense analysis. Not in production despite being a material CPA engagement. SUBPOENA.
Kren Consulting forensic workup (if any firm-level analysis was done) -- not in production. REQUEST or confirm non-existence.

Net result: The operating-side rent trace is a legitimate gap finding. Goldberg has produced zero operating-account records, zero GL data, zero lease documents, and zero landlord correspondence. The only rent footprint in the entire production is the 2-month PPP-era trust-account entry showing $36,601/month paid to "Nath & Associates" under firm docket 37309.

Strategic implication. If rent at $36,601+/month has been paid to Goldtree/A2Z continuously since 2020, and Goldberg/Meyer are members of both Goldtree and A2Z, then a material fraction of the $11M in trust-to-operating sweeps ended up flowing back to Goldberg and Meyer personally via their real-estate LLCs. That is not a compensation item that the Schaefer 6/26/2025 report addresses, because the Schaefer report works backward from trust records only. The rent-channel distribution to partners is invisible from the production and demands the Priority 1/Priority 2 document requests above to bring it into evidence.

Cross-reference: output/GOLDBERG_CONNECTED_ENTITIES_INVESTIGATION.md §1.A (Goldtree Realty), §1.B (A2Z IP), §7 (pre-Schaefer transfer opportunities), §8.1-8.2 (priority investigation targets); output/TURN_AND_BURN_TEMPLATE_CATALOG.md (trust→operating sweep pipeline); discovery_production/TEXT/LITMAN004080.txt (AAA Arbitration Demand describing Goldtree/A2Z membership).

Ngm Rent Payment Trace