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Racism? An African man wants more than his money back after ponying up a small fortune to move into a tony co-op only to be rejected despite going above and beyond all their qualifications!

Via NYDailyNews reports:

A Manhattan co-op board allegedly turned down a wealthy African man even though he paid for his apartment outright in cash, handed over more than a year’s maintenance fees in advance and went through the “bizarre” hoop of having British documents translated — into English.

Goldwyn Thandrayen, 25, claims he agreed to every demand by the board of 210 E. 36th St., where he signed a contract for a studio apartment this spring. He transferred the entire sale price to a U.S. account, added another $30,000 as a guarantee on top of that and put $15,000 for yearly maintenance fees in escrow.

Yet the board didn’t even interview him before rejecting him earlier this month without an explanation.

“It’s pretty bad,” said the Berkeley College business student. “From the very start I knew (the board’s behavior) was weird, (but) I really wanted the apartment and I did everything they asked.”

Thandrayen’s lawyer, Marc Fitapelli, said this board is guilty of discriminating against his client’s national origin.

One email from a board member, for example, sniffed that Thandrayen’s “entire financial portfolio is in some tiny little unknown country.”

The Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the coast of Africa with some 1.3 million people. Thandrayen said he has a refrigerator business there and global real estate investments that were used to pay for the purchase.

After putting a $39,000 deposit and producing the rest of the $400,000 sale price, he was faced with additional requirements, according to the suit filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court.

The board asked for “professional translation” of documents that were in English, a request “not only bizarre, but one of a series of examples of overly discriminatory roadblocks,” charged the complaint.

Thandrayen was assured he would be approved after adding money to the account and the escrow, but he was turned down anyway.

Transferring all the funds back to Mauritius is now a problem, Thandrayen said, because it’s likely to be flagged for money laundering, plus he’s out thousands of dollars in interest and other costs.

Worse, said Fitapelli, “He’s basically blacklisted now from buying a co-op in New York City “because boards tend to not even consider anyone who has been previously rejected.

That’s why he’s suing for damages in excess of $1 million.

“The smart thing to do was interview him and at least come up with some reason to reject him,” he added.

SMH. They ought to be ashamed.

Photo Credit: NYDailyNews/Mariela Lombard/James Keivom

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