The owners of a luxury Chicago steakhouse who are opening an outpost at a Midtown tower that’s partially owned by Donald Trump allegedly used federal funds meant to pay employees’ salaries during COVID for personal expenses – including $2 million on Learjet, according to a bombshell lawsuit.
Maple Hospitality Group, the owners behind Maple & Ash, was accused of “fraudulently” tapping $7.6 million in Small Business Paycheck Protection Program funds, according to the civil suit brought by investors in Chicago’s Cook County Circuit Court.
“The MA restaurants never received a dollar of these funds,” according to the suit, which was obtained by The Post.
According to the complex case, the alleged misappropriation was part of a wider pattern of fiscal wrongdoing by Maple & Ash co-owner Jerald Lasky, his brother James Lasky and by companies controlled by them.
Although the lawsuit refers only to “private jet expenses,” the Chicago Sun-Times and radio station WBEZ traced the payment for the pricey Learjet in 2021 to “a company whose president is James Lasky.”
The owners have denied the charges in the complaint, which was first filed three years ago but received little media attention outside the Windy City.
As reported in The Post in February, Maple Hospitality Group signed a lease for 12,000 square feet at 1290 Sixth Ave., which is majority-owned by Vornado Realty Trust but where the Trump Organization has a 30% passive stake. Trump’s position reels in more than $60 million in annual rent revenue.
Maple & Ash, which opened its flagship steakhouse in Chicago in 2015, is the nation’s fourth-highest-grossing restaurant with more than $35 million revenue a year.
But there seems to be as much sizzle in the Chicago court as on its fancy plates.
Investors who helped raise $3 million each to open Maple & Ash in Chicago and in Scottsdale, Ariz., also claim the company wrongfully used profits to fund the owners’ other restaurant brands in other cities, according to the complaint.
The Laskys allegedly retaliated against the investors for filing the suit by dissolving their interests in the company, according to an amended filing.
James Lasky has been sanctioned by the judge in the case for failing to comply with court orders to turn over bank records and other information. He was ordered to cover plaintiffs’ $191,000 legal fees resulting from withholding information, court records show.
The lawyer for the investors, Michael Forde of Forde & O’Meara, said he hoped the case would finally go to trial early next year.
James Lasky’s lawyer, James Stamos of Stamos & Trucco, didn’t immediately respond to an email and phone call.
The hospitality group launched another steakhouse in Miami in March. Haut Living magazine said the restaurant “brings [the brand’s] signature blend of refined dining, uninhibited energy, and indulgent luxury to the Magic City.”
The Big Apple opening is slated for later this year.
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