Following up on my earlier coverage concerning the TapouT Sale to Authentic Brands Group, the subsequent lawsuit by two individuals with TapouT membership interests against Tapout, LLC, Authentic Brands Group, LLC, Leonard Green & Partners L.P., ABG Tapout, LLC, Marc Kreiner, Daniel Caldwell et al. arising from the acquisition, and the issues surrounding "Mask's" estate and the Orange County Public Administrator, on January 20, 2011, the Orange County Register published an in-depth article addressing all of these issues.
Some interesting (and odd) things to note from the article:
According to the attorney for the public administrator, “'[a]ll the other major shareholders agreed to the sale, including the receiver for the PEM Group (appointed by the Federal Court), whose counsel told us that they had an audit of TapouT and believed that the company was about to collapse financially and the sale to ABG was the only option.'”
"But by then, it was too late. The public administrator had already agreed to sell TapouT at a price other shareholders would later call 'pennies on the dollar.' It sold Lewis' Bentley and Mercedes-Benz for $58,000 less than their appraised values, and paid $45,000 to Lewis' former business partners for funeral expenses they promised to provide for free, court records and interviews show."
"As Larson's attorneys struggled to get their case heard, Williams' [Public Administrator's] office spent $20,345 repairing and detailing Lewis' Bentley GT Touring and Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG, towing them around the county before eventually selling them for $58,000 less than their appraised values. The county even lost money on the dead man's rare pet, an eel called a Hawaiian dragon, spending $780 to feed and care for the fish for a year, then finally selling it for $250."
The entire article is definitely worth a read.
Fight Lawyer
