Moshe Lax is an American businessman from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, known for his legal problems and his business association with Ivanka Trump.

Personal life and education

Lax grew up in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

as the only son of the noted diamond dealer, real estate developer, and philanthropist Chaim Lax who partnered with Brooklyn developer

Isaac Hager Isaac Hager is an American real estate developer who founded the New York City-based Cornell Realty Management. Biography Isaac "Itzy" Hager was born in the 1970s and belongs to the Vizhnitz Hasidic Jewish community based in Williamsburg, Brook ...

in gentrifying

Williamsburg, Brooklyn Williamsburg is a Neighborhoods in Brooklyn, neighborhood in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Bedford–Stuyvesant to the s ...

. He attended local

Hasidic Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...

schools and the religious school (

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...

) of Rabbi Shaul Brus. After his marriage to Shaindy Lax, he ended his religious studies (

kollel A kollel ( he, כולל, , , a "gathering" or "collection" f scholars is an institute for full-time, advanced study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature. Like a yeshiva, a kollel features shiurim (lectures) and learning ''sedarim'' (sessions); ...

) to found the Dynamic Diamonds Corp., a diamond sales business, together with his father. He resides in a mansion in Riverdale with his wife.

Business career

When his father died in 2008, Lax inherited his vast debts. Lax was sued by the estate's creditors, who alleged in court that Lax had used shell companies to hide the estate's assets, and that he attempted to extort them and other members of the Orthodox Jewish community into giving up on the debts. The lawsuit was eventually settled. Lax was also the subject of several other lawsuits, many of which regarded unpaid debts and legal fees. In 2017, Lax opened a two-story fashion gallery on

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...

in New York. The opening was attended by

Tiffany Trump Tiffany Ariana Trump (born October 13, 1993) is the fourth child of former U.S. President Donald Trump and his only child with his second wife, Marla Maples. She is a legal research assistant at Georgetown University Law Center. Early life an ...

, Kimberly Guilfoyle and Lax's landlord

Eliot Spitzer Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959) is an American politician and attorney. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was the 54th governor of New York from 2007 until his resignation in 2008. Spitzer was b ...

. In August 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Lax for the payment of $60 million worth of taxes. The DOJ alleged that Lax, his father and his sister Zlaty Schwartz conducted complex fake transactions in order to fraudulently evade taxes.

Association with Ivanka and Donald Trump

Lax was Ivanka Trump's business partner for licensing her name in jewelry, and he helped her open an

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

boutique in 2007. Lax became a friend of Ivanka Trump, her father

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

and their family, and was invited to attend Donald Trump's 2016 election victory party and

inauguration In government and politics, inauguration is the process of swearing a person into office and thus making that person the incumbent. Such an inauguration commonly occurs through a formal ceremony or special event, which may also include an inaugu ...

. The business relationship between Lax and Ivanka Trump continued even after Lax's company defaulted on several payments in 2011, entangled Ivanka Trump in a legal dispute with another diamond dealer (which Lax lost in 2015), and continued to have other legal problems. Lax was listed as chairman of Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry until 2017, and she at one point owned part of his company.

Academia

Moshe Lax is a

Talmudic scholar The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the center ...

of Jewish law and philosophy and has published a two-volume book titled "Derech Nesher". Lax co-authored with Hillel E. Broder, PhD, "If I am here, then all is here: Towards a Phenomenological Existentialism in the Rabbinic Law of Beit Hillel". He also co-authored and published research on the self with neuropsychologist Stan Klein, UC Santa Barbara.

Art

Moshe published an album in collaboration with Ami Magazine titled "AMI" featuring

Yaakov Lemmer Yaakov ("Yanky") Lemmer (born November 6, 1983) is an American Chazzan (Jewish cantor) and performing artist. Lemmer performs traditional Hebrew liturgy, Yiddish folk, opera, Broadway, Israeli, and Hasidic music. Lemmer currently serves as Head ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lax, Moshe Living people Diamond dealers Jews and Judaism in New York City American business executives American Orthodox Jews Year of birth missing (living people)