[1] After spending a year in Singapore traveling and volunteering, he returned to Florida and accepted a job at Optima Ventures, a real estate investment firm 1/3 owned by Optima International of Miami (co-founded by Schochet's brother-in-law Mordechai "Motti" Korf and Uri Laber), and 2/3 owned by the principals of the Privat Group, one of Ukraine's largest business and banking groups[1] founded by oligarchs Hennadiy Boholyubov and Ihor Kolomoyskyi.
[11] He has also made acquisitions outside of Cleveland including the 2008 purchase of the 1.5 million square foot former Motorola manufacturing facility in Harvard, Illinois.
[2][16] Schochet was identified as being the "front man" in an illegal scheme with Optima, which was accused in the lawsuit of "financial crimes and money laundering" involving "hundreds of millions of dollars worth of U.S. assets — including major real estate holdings in downtown Cleveland.
[19][20] The attorney for Schochet, Korf, and Laber, Marc Kasowitz, stated that the lawsuit is "100% false and defamatory... and is "nothing more than a fictional orchestrated political attack" on his clients who vocally opposed President Trump at the time.
[2] Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani commented that it should have been obvious that money laundering was occurring as Optima was overpaying for real estate and then selling at a loss.