Proposed $5M Zayat Settlement Gives Only $30K to ‘Unsecured’ Claimants

The court-appointed trustee in the nearly two-year-old Zayat Stables involuntary bankruptcy case is proposing a settlement in which Ahmed Zayat and his family members would pay $5 million to be allocated between MGG Investment Group and the trustee.

Of that amount, only $30,000 is earmarked to eventually go to “unsecured creditors,” some of whom are Thoroughbred industry participants owed money by Zayat Stables and are much further down the legal pecking order for otherwise getting repaid.

MGG will also get a disbursement from the funds in the bankruptcy trustee's account amounting to $1,025,145.

In return, MGG–the lender that alleged Zayat and his family members obtained a $24 million loan by fraud in 2016 then never repaid it–will issue a “waiver” giving up any further pursuit of the total $27.1 million total amount it had been seeking as a secured creditor.

MGG has also agreed to return $452,500 of the settlement money it gets from the “Zayat Parties” to the trustee, which will provide for the above-mentioned $30,000 “carve-out” that gets set aside to pay unsecured creditors.

The trustee will then be permitted to use $185,981 of that MGG payment to cover “administrative obligations” that the estate has incurred.

“[E]ntry into the Settlement Agreement serves the paramount interest of the creditors of the Debtor's estate,” trustee Jeffrey Testa wrote in a July 26 series of documents filed in United States Bankruptcy Court (District of New Jersey). “Resolution of the claims by and between the Chapter 7 Trustee MGG and the Zayat Parties through the Settlement Agreement represents a successful outcome for the Debtor's creditors.”

Not every creditor is going to agree with the trustee on that “successful outcome” statement.

Drew Mollica, the attorney for New York-based trainer Rudy Rodriguez, told TDN in a phone interview that his client has an unsecured claim of $397,000, and the $30,000 set aside for all unsecured claimants amounts only to a “drop in the bucket” for what Rodriguez is owed.

“Although I don't know all of the details and I'm going to reach out to the trustee, it seems the only carve-out for anybody but MGG is $30,000, Mollica said. “And all of the other unsecured claimants are in the same boat.”

It's important to note that this involuntary bankruptcy petition involving Zayat Stables is different from the Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy claim that the allegedly impoverished breeder and owner of Triple Crown champ American Pharoah initiated Sept. 8, 2020, when he claimed to own just $300 in cash and $14.22 in two checking accounts.

Six days later, on Sept. 14, 2020, an involuntary bankruptcy petition led by Zayat's former financial advisor was initiated against Zayat's family racing business.

Involuntary bankruptcy proceedings are relatively uncommon in United States courts. They are designed to protect creditors, not debtors, and are often filed against companies (as opposed to individuals) as an attempt to get paid when it is believed that a firm is rapidly burning through assets and/or financial malfeasance is alleged.

The trustee could have elected to keep battling MGG to try and whittle down the sought-after $27.1 million. But Testa explained in court documents that the proceedings had reached a point where resistance equated to a losing proposition for the estate.

“Litigation against MGG would involve sufficiently complex legal and factual issues, particularly regarding the substance of complex loan documents and the establishment of lender liability, which would require protracted hard-fought and arduous litigation and significant expert costs,” Testa wrote.

“In addition, as a result of MGG's properly-perfected status and outstanding amounts owed to it, the Chapter 7 Trustee has no encumbered funds to fight such a taxing battle,” Testa wrote.

“As to the Zayat Parties, litigation against them would be equally challenging, demanding, complex, and come at significant additional cost and delay,” Testa wrote. “In addition, based on the litigious history of this proceeding, any judgment obtained would almost certainly be subject to an appeal.

“The Settlement Agreement avoids these obstacles in favor of a prompt and efficient resolution without the need to expend further estate resources,” Testa wrote.

Other family members of Ahmed Zayat (identified in court documents as his wife, Joanne; four children, Justin, Ashley, Benjamin and Emma, plus a brother, Sherif) are on the hook for contributing to the $5-million settlement payment because, Testa wrote, “The Zayat Parties strenuously asserted that to their detriment they provided funds to Zayat Stables in an effort to keep the entity operating [by contributing] approximately $2.5 million more to Zayat Stables than the transfers they had received from Zayat Stables.”

The proposed settlement agreement even includes a section related to who gets the trophies and other racing mementos that the trustee has been storing since their seizure from the under-receivership Zayat Stables offices.

“Zayat and several of the Zayat Parties objected to the removal of the Memorabilia based upon the position that the Memorabilia were not estate property,” Testa wrote.

The trustee added that he now considers that property “abandoned,” which likely means that Zayat can reclaim it.

“So it looks like he keeps the trophies, and the horsemen who earned the trophies get nothing,” Mollica said.

The next step in the process is for the court to approve the settlement. If other parties file an objection by Aug. 16, then an Aug. 23 hearing will take place to hear the objection(s). If no one objects, the court will enter a notice of “no objection” and the settlement will be completed as proposed.

Asked if he would be objecting on behalf of Rodriguez, Mollica said, “I'll know more after I reach out to the trustee. I'll reserve my right.”

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Kentucky Appeals Court Upholds Dismissal Of Farms From MGG/Zayat Case

A Kentucky appeals court has upheld a lower court's dismissal of several Thoroughbred entities from a civil suit between MGG Investments and Zayat Stables. The Kentucky Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the actions of Fayette County Circuit Court, which determined the New York investment firm could not sue the purchasers of stallions, mares, and stallion shares sold by Zayat.

MGG sued Zayat Stables in early 2020 after the investment firm said the stable failed to pay back a $23 million loan. Among its accusations against the Triple Crown-winning owner, MGG claimed that Zayat had sold off assets without informing MGG or giving the company the money it was entitled to from those sales. MGG had named Yeomanstown Stud, Hill 'n' Dale, LNJ Foxwoods, Orpendale, and others who had purchased bloodstock assets from Zayat.

Zayat Stables was put under the care of a third-party receiver, and as of early 2021 was down to two horses. Zayat Stables owners Ahmed Zayat has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy since the start of the MGG lawsuit.

Read more at The Blood-Horse

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The Friday Show Presented By Monmouth Park: What’s The Deal With Zayat?

When attorneys representing Ahmed Zayat asked a U.S. bankruptcy court judge to let them drop out of the case because they allege the Eclipse Award-winning owner and breeder stopped paying them, some wondered why any law firm would represent an individual whose racing stable owed so much money to so many people.

We aren't experts on legal issues, so went to someone who is: Bob Heleringer, a Louisville, Ky., attorney and former state legislator who joins Paulick Report publisher Ray Paulick and bloodstock editor Joe Nevills to discuss the Zayat case. (Full disclosure: Heleringer said he represents trainer Rudy Rodriguez, one of several trainers to whom Zayat Stables owes money, according to court documents.)

While Heleringer's expertise is in equine regulatory law, he has some interesting comments and observations about the Zayat bankruptcy and the $23-million lawsuit filed against him by MGG Investment Group alleging fraud and breach of contract on a loan.

Joe and Ray review the performance by Jolie Olimpica, the Woodbine Star of the Week who carried the red and white Fox Hill Farm colors of the late Rick Porter to victory in last week's Grade 2 Nassau Stakes.

Watch this week's show, presented by Monmouth Park, below:

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Claiming They Are Owed $368,272, Zayat’s Attorneys Want Out Of Bankruptcy Case

Ahmed Zayat, who filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last year after being sued by MGG Investment Group for allegedly defaulting on a $24 million loan, has stopped paying his attorneys, according to a court filing.

Jay L. Lubetkin, a partner in the Rabinowitz, Lubetkin & Tully law firm that has been representing Zayat in both the bankruptcy and MGG adversary proceedings, filed a notice with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey on Monday seeking to withdraw from the case.

Lubetkin said Zayat has failed to fulfill his promise to keep outstanding invoices within 60-day terms and a subsequent promise to make minimum monthly payments of $50,000. Lubetkin said he tried communicating with Zayat “at least nine times” in July to discuss the status of payments but has not received a “substantive or satisfactory response” from the Eclipse Award-winning owner and breeder who campaigned 2015 Triple Crown winner and Horse of the Year American Pharoah.

Lubetkin said Zayat currently owes $368,273.33, not including billings incurred since June 29, 2021. Lubetkin said the last payment received was May 5, with outstanding bills now dating back to February of this year.

“If (Zayat) were to satisfy his previously expressed commitment to keep our receivables within 60-day terms,” Lubetkin wrote, “it would require an immediate payment of $232,899, and a further payment of $76,717 when the billing governing July's efforts is tendered.”

Lubetkin commented that the MGG Investment Group lawsuit is “in its earliest stages” and likely would not go to trial until the second quarter of 2022, at the soonest.

Zayat's “payment failures constitute a failure to substantially fulfill obligations to our firm,” Lubetkin wrote, “and the debtor (Zayat) has been given reasonable warning that we will have no choice but to withdraw unless those obligations were fulfilled. … Additionally, continuing representation of the debtor will result in an unreasonable financial burden on our firm.”

Zayat, Lubetkin added, is “an extremely intelligent individual who fully understands the Chapter 7 bankruptcy process, the nature of the claims being made against him by MGG Investment Group in its adversary proceeding seeking the non-dischargeability of the alleged debt due MGG Investment Group, the role of his individual Chapter 7 trustee, the role of the Chatper 7 trustee for Zayat Stables LLC, the prospect of an objection to discharge complaint being filed against the debtor by his individual Chapter 7 trustee and the prospect of a Section 523 complaint being filed against the debtor by the Stables' trustee. The debtor also understands the exemption available to his interest in residential real property, the exemption available to his ownership interest in home furnishings, and the impact of the real property and personalty appraisals  obtained by his Chapter 7 trustee.

“Based on the debtor's intelligence and the detailed statutory and caselaw information which has been shared with the debtor,” Lubetkin concluded, “the debtor is fully capable of representing himself in his main bankruptcy case and in the adversary proceeding.”

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