Cushman & Wakefield, City Added to $52M Bribery Suit

A Staten Island businessman who says he lost out on an $8M real estate contract after refusing to pay a $250,000 bribe is now seeking damages from New York City and one of the world’s largest brokerages. The allegations have not been proven.

Attorneys for Mazen Dayem filed an amended complaint on Oct. 9 in a case he first brought in July. The updated filing adds the city government and Cushman & Wakefield as defendants. It also adds new breach-of-contract claims against the owners of a Sunset Park office building. Dayem is asking for up to $52M in compensation from Cushman, broker Diana Boutross, Cushman Executive Vice Chairman Gus Field, former city real estate head Jesse Hamilton, the building’s owners and the city, according to Bisnow, which first reported on the filing.

The original suit alleged that Hamilton and Boutross, Cushman’s vice chairman of brokerage sales, tried to extract a bribe from Dayem in exchange for city business, then cut him out of deals when he refused. The new complaint argues that the city and Cushman share responsibility for what their employees allegedly did.

According to the complaint, Dayem was retained last year by Madison Capital and Salmar Properties, owners of the 1.3M SF office building at 850 Third Ave., to consult on leasing space to the city. He was to help ownership deal with two agencies, the Fire Department and the Department of Homelessness Services, and says he stood to earn $8M from those contracts.

Dayem alleges that in July 2025, Hamilton told him the FDNY contract could not proceed unless he paid $250,000 and brought Boutross on as tenant broker. He says he declined. He claims Boutross raised the fee again at a walk-through about two weeks later, and he refused again.

In February, Dayem says, a representative for Madison and Salmar breached his contract by communicating directly with Boutross to lease space to the Administration for Children’s Services. He alleges the group conspired to push him out by imposing unreasonably tight deadlines, with cancellation of his contract as the penalty.

The new claims against the city center on oversight. Dayem’s attorneys wrote that the city failed to investigate earlier complaints, warnings and disciplinary filings about Hamilton, who they say used his post at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services “to further his own personal interests in violation of the public trust.” They added that the city “knew or should have known that Hamilton was unfit, incompetent, reckless, or otherwise posed a foreseeable risk of harm to members of the public.”

Against Cushman, the suit alleges a violation of New York property law. It claims the firm failed to adequately supervise or discipline Boutross and Field until Dayem’s relationship with the landlords “had already been irreparably damaged.”

The case lands amid existing scrutiny of how the city leased office space under Mayor Eric Adams. Hamilton resigned and pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy after the Manhattan District Attorney filed indictments last year. Bisnow reported that Hamilton and Boutross were among a group whose cellphones were seized by the DA in October 2024 as they landed from a trip to Japan. Earlier allegations held that Hamilton pressed landlords to work with Boutross, who had previously specialized in retail, on leases for city agencies.

Spokespeople for the Department of Citywide Administrative Services and Cushman & Wakefield did not immediately respond to Bisnow’s requests for comment. Boutross also did not respond, and Hamilton could not be reached.

“He’s fighting for his life here,” Dayem’s attorney, Alex Estis of Rosenberg & Estis, told Bisnow. “He’s fighting for his reputation, and he was wronged.”