A New Jersey-based real-estate investment firm filed for bankruptcy, under investigation by federal and state authorities following the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s arrest of an executive adviser last year, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. National Realty Investment Advisors LLC and more than 100 affiliates filed for chapter 11 on Tuesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Newark, N.J., with the goal of preventing a “disorderly liquidation” of an estimated $225 million portfolio of investment properties located across four Eastern states. The firm has been steered by independent manager Brian Casey since late April following the arrest of an NRIA contractor last year and the resignation of its longtime chief executive. Based in Secaucus, N.J., NRIA has developed and managed residential and mixed-use development projects across the East Coast for more than a decade, raising money from thousands of individual investors who learned of the opportunity through the company’s advertisements on the radio and on television. In court papers filed Wednesday, Mr. Casey said that NRIA’s real-estate assets in New York, New Jersey, Florida and Pennsylvania are expected to provide “a substantial, if not full, recovery” to roughly 2,000 investors holding around $540 million in preferred shares. NRIA enters chapter 11 under investigation by federal prosecutors in New Jersey as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission and securities regulators in New Jersey, Illinois and Alabama, Mr. Casey said.
