A bitter family dispute over a multimillion-dollar Manhattan property has turned into a major legal battle after two wealthy parents filed a lawsuit against their own daughter, accusing her of attempting to sell a luxury apartment without their authorization.
The case involves Arthur and Ester Haruvi and their 47-year-old daughter, Michelle Haruvi.
At the center of the dispute is a luxury two-bedroom condominium at The Sheffield, a prestigious residential tower near Columbus Circle in Manhattan.
The apartment was originally purchased through a family-owned limited liability company in 2012 for approximately $2.6 million.
According to the parents’ lawsuit, they gifted Michelle a 99% economic interest in the apartment as part of an estate-planning arrangement. However, they claim they retained management authority over the company that legally owns the property.
Years later, the relationship between the family members deteriorated, eventually leading to multiple legal disputes.
The situation escalated in June 2026, when Arthur and Ester allegedly discovered that their daughter had arranged to prepare the apartment for a potential sale.
According to the complaint, the parents learned about the plans through a building notice announcing a private preview before the property was publicly listed.
They alleged that Michelle had hired an interior design company to stage the apartment and had attempted to prevent information about the planned sale from reaching them.
The property was subsequently listed for approximately $2.79 million.
But that was not the only accusation.
The parents also claimed that Michelle had taken control of the company’s bank accounts, collected more than $100,000 in annual rental income, and failed to provide financial records and tax documents.
They turned to federal court seeking to stop the sale, recover financial information, and obtain an independent accounting of the property’s income.
Michelle’s side of the dispute has not been fully established in the public reporting, and the allegations in the parents’ complaint should not be treated as proven facts.
The conflict is particularly complicated because the daughter had previously received a substantial economic interest in the apartment as a gift.
The case has therefore raised difficult questions about family gifts, property ownership, business control, and what happens when relatives disagree over valuable assets.
What began as an estate-planning decision has developed into a multimillion-dollar family dispute.