Hamptons squatter alleges harassment by homeowner, prospective buyer

The Cantor Fitzgerald exec accused of exploiting pandemic-related protections to avoid eviction from a $5 million Hamptons mansion claims he and his wife have been harassed and humiliated in a bid to force them out — including through the use of “defamatory memes” sent to his bosses.

In court papers filed Wednesday, Paul Pion alleged that property owner Damian Krause and prospective purchaser Aaron Appel schemed to portray his family as “squatters” and “hoarders” in a suit filed last month in Suffolk County Supreme Court that seeks their “immediate removal” from the four-bedroom house in Water Mill. In an affidavit filed by Pion, the financial services firm’s chief administrative officer and senior managing director also accused Krause and Appel of being “behind a series of defamatory memes that were sent to media outlets and the executive management of Cantor Fitzgerald, questioning my ethics, in a blatant effort to cause reputational harm.”