Williamsburg businessman Menachem Stark may have met his end over a mere $20,000 loan, despite owing millions of dollars to creditors all over the country, new reports suggest.
Investigators say they've linked a contractor who lent the murdered Stark $20K to both the Dodge Caravan kidnap van, which was found in Brownsville yesterday, and a cell phone that was discovered underneath Stark's car. They suspect the phone may have been used to track Stark prior to his January 2nd kidnapping and subsequent slaying. “We’re waiting for forensics on the car and tracking his calls. But he owed this money, the guy picked up in the Caravan knows him and the phone under [Stark’s] car has ties to the contractor,” a law-enforcement source told the Daily News.
The yet unnamed contractor isn't the only person to whom Stark owed a debt, with lenders including the Broadway Bank of Chicago—which lent Stark and partner Israel Perlmutter $8 million—and a Borough Park developer who gave him $500,000 on the day of his disappearance.
Investigators also believe Stark, who was suffocated to death, was killed accidentally, and the kidnapping was intended as a scare tactic.
