Construction magnate James Lomma declared bankruptcy Wednesday, just a day after the families of two men who were crushed to death by one of his cranes tried to collect a $96 million jury verdict.
In the Brooklyn federal court filing, Lomma says he employs 129 people and owns equipment involved in some of the city’s largest construction projects including Hudson Yards and the new World Trade Center.
Lomma, 70, filed four Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases for himself and three of his companies.
The combined cases peg Lomma’s assets at between $4 million and $40 million and his debts at between $40 million and $200 million.
His lawyer, Kevin Nash, said the cases were filed while Lomma appeals the massive verdict. Lomma, who dubbed himself the “King of Cranes,” was accused of using a faulty bearing on his Kodiak crane that eventually cracked and collapsed on the Upper East Side in 2008.
Lomma owns a $1 million home on Staten Island, a $300,000 villa in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and a $500,000 airplane. He pays himself a $147,000 salary.
Besides the $96 million jury verdict to the families of construction worker Ramadan Kurtaj and crane operator Donald Leo Jr., Lomma owes $300,000 in state and federal taxes, $7.8 million to a business partner and $3 million to an aviation finance company, among other debts.
The Post exclusively reported last month that lawyers for the victims claim Lomma’s been moving assets to a construction company set up in the name of his daughter, whose former career was in cosmetics sales.
Just yesterday attorneys for the Kurtaj and Leo families slapped liens on two of Lomma’s cranes, a bank account and a brokerage account.
“Today, once again, James Lomma has done everything in his power to manipulate the system in his ongoing efforts to deprive the Kurtaj and Leo families of justice and closure in the death of their loved ones,” said attorney Susan Karten.