Archive
- Las Vegas businessman receives backing on bankruptcy issue (7-13-2011)
- Creditors defend claims in Las Vegas developer’s case (5-28-2011)
- Las Vegas developer tangling with lender in bankruptcy case (5-9-2011)
- Bankrupt developer hit with another lawsuit alleging fraud (3-10-2011)
- Businessman accused of fraud reaches $400,000 settlement (12-29-2010)
- Creditors still trying to recover money from Las Vegas businessman (10-16-2010)
- Hearing delayed for man accused in real estate scheme (1-21-2010)
- After $338,306 payment missed, scam case goes to court (1-8-2010)
- Lawsuits pile up in Las Vegas real estate investment scam (8-2-2009)
- Suspect to be arraigned in investment scam (6-18-2009)
- Lawsuits pile up in Las Vegas real estate investment scam (6-23-2009)
- Officials searching for man accused of senior exploitation (6-23-2009)
Las Vegas businessman Jean Marc El Jwaidi continues to wheel and deal in his bankruptcy case – and is now signaling that he again wants to invest in commercial real estate.
El Jwaidi is trying to emerge from personal Chapter 7 bankruptcy after his plans to develop a mixed-use shopping center on the Las Vegas Beltway fell apart, he lost his development company in another bankruptcy and he was arrested on charges of bilking investors in the shopping center development.
Despite these setbacks, El Jwaidi arranged for one or more benefactors to pay certain creditors $738,000 and to pay his bankruptcy estate another $1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the bankruptcy case’s trustee.
The trustee’s lawsuit alleged financial irregularities contributed to the bankruptcy and harmed creditors.
In the latest development in the case, attorneys for El Jwaidi say they have reached a settlement with Vestin Mortgage over Vestin’s $13.3 million claim as a creditor in the case.
Vestin had foreclosed on El Jwaidi’s land at Russell Road and the Las Vegas Beltway, where he and his development company Babuski LLC planned to build his shopping center called PG Plaza.
Besides retaining the land, Vestin filed a $13.3 million claim in the bankruptcy case for unpaid principal, interest and fees.
Now, according to a Friday court filing, El Jwaidi and Vestin agreed that Vestin will reduce its claim by about $9 million and to not contest El Jwaidi’s $1 million settlement with the trustee.
El Jwaidi also received an option from Vestin to buy the 9.2 acres of PG Plaza land back from Vestin for $2 million by Oct. 3.
It’s unknown where the $2 million for the purchase would come from and whether, if he gains the land, El Jwaidi would resume his development plans there.
In another twist, attorneys for El Jwaidi in their court filing said that after Vestin loaned Babuski $9.5 million in 2006, El Jwaidi received a commitment for another $30 million loan from a company called Kenlin Capital and its principal Joseph Sorrentino.
The $30 million would pay for construction of PG Plaza and pay off the Vestin loan – but the $30 million loan was not funded.
Records show that Sorrentino, of Stratford, Conn., last year was sentenced to 48 months in prison by a federal judge in Hartford after pleading guilty in what prosecutors called a $2 million scheme in which he collected advance fees for loans that he never provided and could not provide.