WARREN, Ohio – Plaintiffs seeking foreclosure on the Warren Steel Holdings site at 4000 Mahoning Ave. have filed a motion requesting a court award a default judgment in the matter, since none of the defendants have responded to an initial complaint filed earlier this year, documents say.

Attorneys for Optima Acquisitions LLC, based in Miami, filed the motion Dec. 22 in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, records show. The motion names Warren Steel Holdings LLC and six other companies – TMS International Corp., Scrap Metal Services LLC, Lincoln Recycling Inc., Motion Industries Inc., CSX Transportation Inc. and Songer Steel Services Inc. – as defendants.

“Each defendant was duly served with the summons or complaint prior on or prior to November 19, 2025, and has failed to plead or otherwise defend,” the motion said. “None have appeared in this action.”

A telephone hearing on the motion is scheduled for Feb. 4, 2026, court records show. Should the motion be granted, it could help clear the way for a potential sale of the property.

Optima initially filed a foreclosure action against Warren Steel on June 27, records show. Warren Steel Holdings acquired the assets of the former Copperweld Steel Corp. – then known as CSC Ltd. – out of bankruptcy in 2001. 

The mill resumed operations in 2009 but shut down shortly afterward. Despite restarting in 2014, the operation eventually closed permanently in January 2016, leaving behind a legacy of environmental problems and issues tied to what federal officials said was an international fraud conspiracy hatched by Ukrainian oligarchs.

According to the initial foreclosure complaint, Optima tendered a $15 million loan to Warren Steel in August 2014, as the steel company prepared to resume operations. Warren Steel pledged the sprawling plant and more than 360 acres as collateral to obtain the loan, court documents show. 

The note remains unpaid, the suit alleges, and Optima Acquisitions has requested that Judge Sarah Thomas Kovoor award the company first position on the land and buildings and place the property up for sale.

However, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in October filed a motion to intervene in the matter, citing that it wants to ensure that all environmental cleanup work at the site is completed, and that a consent order and covenant signed is enforced. The covenant stipulates that the land is barred from future residential development, prohibits extraction of ground water for potable use and does not allow excavation, drilling or mining activity near the mill’s former baghouse area without the consent of the OEPA.

“Any disposition of this case without the state’s involvement would substantially impair or impede with the environmental protections and cleanup measures in place,” the OEPA said in its filing. “The property is also subject to outstanding injunctive relief” per the consent order and civil penalties, according to court documents.

The court granted the motion Oct. 16. 

In 2021, the state of Ohio and Warren Steel entered a settlement in which Warren Steel paid a total of $1,122,852.57 in civil penalties. Of that amount, $472,852 would be paid to the state’s Environmental Protection Remediation Fund, while $150,000.57 is to be paid to Ohio’s Water Pollution Control Administration Fund. 

The balance of the penalty – $500,000 – was paid to an interest-bearing Supplemental Environmental Project fund, administered by the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments. 

The settlement stipulates that those funds are to be used “solely for the purpose of improving public health and wellness in and around the Warren, Ohio, community.”

A Troubled Past

In its initial foreclosure filing, Optima Acquisitions requested that proceeds from any sale be used to pay the company’s claims. 

Mordechai Korf, Optima’s manager and CEO, signed the 2014 loan agreement, according to exhibits filed with the court. Korf – also listed as president of Warren Steel – signed on behalf of that company as well.

Documents filed with the court show that Optima sent a letter to Warren Steel on May 8 of this year demanding payment on the $15 million loan, plus interest of $16,113,698.63, bringing the total owed to $31,113,698.63.

Incorporation documents filed with the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office still lists Warren Steel Holdings as active.

In August 2020, federal authorities raided the Cleveland and Miami offices of Optima Management Group, a collection of companies owned in part by Ihor Kolomoisky, a billionaire businessman in Ukraine who held real estate and business interests across the United States – among them Warren Steel Holdings.

According to a complaint filed Aug. 6, 2020, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District in Miami, the federal government alleged that Kolomoisky and three associates masterminded a complex plot to launder millions of dollars it says was pilfered from PrivatBank, a Ukraine institution that Kolomoisky once controlled. That money – issued through lines of credit intended for legitimate business purposes – “functioned instead as slush funds” that Kolomoisky and business partner Gennadiy Bogolubov used for “whatever purpose they wanted,” court documents say. 

Federal prosecutors said funds were misappropriated from PrivatBank and then laundered through shell companies overseas before being sent to the United States. 

Some of this money was used to acquire assets in the U.S., including real estate in Cleveland, Texas and Kentucky and businesses such as Warren Steel, authorities say. These assets in turn served as collateral to secure additional loans for the Ukrainian businessmen, prosecutors said.

According to a May 2019 civil suit filed by PrivatBank in the Court of Chancery in Delaware, Kolomoisky and his associates funneled $622.8 million in fraudulently obtained loans into their U.S. interests. Court documents say about $9 million went to Warren Steel between 2010 and 2013. 

Attorneys representing Mordechai Korf have asserted previously that their client knew nothing of Kolomoisky’s actions.

The civil case and criminal investigation is ongoing. Kolomoisky has since been banned from the United States and is in detention in Ukraine.