Judge Orders Fabrikant Insiders’ Assets Seized
Rob Bates, Senior Editor -- JCK-Jewelers Circular Keystone, 6/20/2008 12:26:00 PM
The bankruptcy of M. Fabrikant & Sons has turned nasty—with a judge ordering the former owners’ property to be seized by U.S. marshals.
In a lawsuit filed this week, the “Shared Asset Trust” now in charge of the company accused its former owners of making “more than $100 million” of “improper” monetary transfers to company affiliates in the 16 months prior to its Chapter 11 filing.
The suit charges that the company’s owners—members of the Fortgang family—“presided over the systematic siphoning of tens of millions of dollars per year from the Debtors [M. Fabrikant and Sons] to [its] Affiliates” as Fabrikant became insolvent.
The suit says the transfers were “unsecured, undocumented” and “have never been repaid.”
Following this, US district judge authorized the plaintiffs, using the U.S. Marshall “to take all necessary steps to secure, remove and/or take inventory of the [defendants’] property located at their [New York apartments] including breaking open, entering and searching for said property.”
In a letter to the judge, the defendants’ attorney said “our clients stand to be irreparably injured by some of the provisions of the orders entered today,” stipulated that “certain of the provisions conflict with each other” and urged the judge to meet with him.
The attorney, Hunter Carter of Arent Fox, did not return a phone call from JCK.
