Eva Longoria Parker hosts the grand opening of her Beso restaurant and Eve Nightclub at CityCenter on Dec. 3, 2009.
Actress Eva Longoria’s bankrupt Las Vegas restaurant company is suing one of Longoria’s co-investors, demanding he return money paid to buy out his share of the business.
A lawsuit-like adversary complaint was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Las Vegas on Tuesday by Beso LLC against Anthony Vicidomine.
Beso LLC used to own the Beso restaurant and Eve nightclub at the Crystals mall at CityCenter on the Las Vegas Strip. Longoria had a 32 percent position in Beso LLC, which was created in hopes of duplicating the success of her Beso restaurant in Hollywood.
The Las Vegas Beso company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in January. It sold the restaurant, which is still operating, and the closed nightclub to an affiliate of Landry’s Restaurants Inc. of Houston on Oct. 17 for $1 million.
Beso Las Vegas opened in late 2009 and had generated hefty revenue of $14.6 million in 2010 but was driven into bankruptcy after being sued over unpaid construction bills and by disgruntled former partners and managers.
The Landry’s takeover was approved earlier this year over the objections of Vicidomine and two other former investors, Ronen and Mali Nachum.
Vicidomine had teamed up with nightclub operator Angel Management Group of Las Vegas in an unsuccessful bid to take over Beso and had charged the Landry’s takeover was a sweetheart deal for Longoria since she was able to maintain an interest in the high-profile restaurant.
But Bankruptcy Judge Mike Nakagawa, in approving the deal, noted Beso’s landlord, Crystals, had veto power over any sale and it favored the Landry’s/Longoria takeover plan.
Attorneys for Beso LLC, which is winding down the company’s business following the sale of its assets to Landry’s, in the meantime filed Tuesday’s complaint against Vicidomine.
The complaint charges that before the bankruptcy, Vicidomine negotiated a buyout of his interest in Beso for $750,000. That amount eventually grew to $784,000, including attorney’s fees, after Vicidomine sued to enforce the settlement.
Beso ended up paying Vicidomine $225,000 between January 2010 and November 2010, and in Tuesday’s complaint, the company demanded that all of that money be returned.
The complaint doesn’t allege any wrongdoing by Vicidomine but asserts he has received more than his fair share of cash from the company, given the losses facing other investors and creditors.
“The creditors of this bankruptcy estate will not receive a 100 percent distribution on claims, so these transfers allowed this particular creditor to receive more than he would have received from liquidation under Chapter 7,” the complaint says.
“This debtor did not receive reasonably equivalent value in exchange for the transfers. The transfers are therefore avoidable by Beso pursuant to” bankruptcy law, the complaint says.
If successful, the complaint would mean that Vicidomine, at one point Beso’s third-largest creditor, would likely see most of his investment in the company wiped out.
With $5.8 million in claims against the bankruptcy estate, most of the Beso investors will be wiped out, including Longoria, who had advanced the company more than $1.4 million. The Desperate Housewives actress, however, will have a chance to recover some of those losses thanks to her role with Landry’s in which she’s expected to continue promoting Beso.
Longoria and the other initial organizers of Beso Las Vegas are expected to lose their initial investments because the $1 million in proceeds from the Landry’s sale, combined with Beso’s minimal cash reserves, have been earmarked for paying Beso’s attorney’s fees, part of $491,000 in past-due sales taxes and part of Crystals’ allowed claim of $1.5 million for past-due rent.
“There is no possibility of a distribution to pre-petition unsecured creditors,” Beso manager William Braden said in a Nov. 17 court declaration.
A request for comment was placed with Vicidomine’s attorney on the complaint seeking to recover the $225,000 from him.