{"id":"court_ctb_2982_0","court":"CTB","case_no":"22-50073","doc_number":2982,"sub_number":0,"doc_type":"ORDER","filed_date":"2024-03-07","title":"UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT BRIDGEPORT DIVISION In Re \\* Case No. 22-50073 (JAM) \\* HO WAN KW","summary_zh":null,"summary_en":null,"body_en":"UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT BRIDGEPORT DIVISION In Re \\* Case No. 22-50073 (JAM) \\* HO WAN KWOK and GENEVER \\* Bridgeport, Connecticut HOLDINGS CORPORATION, \\* February 27, 2024 \\* Debtors. \\* \\* \\* \\* \\* \\* \\* \\* \\* \\* \\* \\* \\* \\* \\* \\* \\* \\* TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE HONORABLE JULIE A. MANNING UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY JUDGE #2941 ORDER GRANTING REQUEST FOR STATUS CONFERENCE APPEARANCES: For the Chapter 11 Trustee: NICHOLAS A. BASSETT, ESQ. Paul Hastings LLP 200 Park Avenue New York, NY 10166 PATRICK R. LINSEY, ESQ. Neubert Pepe and Monteith 195 Church Street,13th Floor New Haven, CT 06510 Chapter 11 Trustee: LUC A. DESPINS, ESQ. Paul Hastings LLP 200 Park Avenue New York, NY 10166 For the U.S. Trustee: HOLLEY L. CLAIBORN, ESQ. Office of the United States Trustee The Giaimo Federal Building 150 Court Street, Room 302 New Haven, CT 06510 Proceedings recorded by electronic sound recording, transcript produced by transcription service. **Fiore Reporting and Transcription Service, Inc.**\n\n **Shelton, CT 06484 (203)732-6461**\n\nAPPEARANCES: (Cont'd.) For the Creditors Committee: JONATHAN KAPLAN, ESQ. Pullman & Comley 850 Main Street Bridgeport, CT 06601 For the Creditor, Pacific STUART M. SARNOFF, ESQ. Alliance Asia Opportunity O'Melveny & Myers LLP Fund L.P.: Times Square Tower 7 Times Square New York, NY 10036 ANNECCA H. SMITH, ESQ. Robinson & Cole 28 Trumbull Street Hartford, CT 06103 For Mei Guo: SAM DELLA FERA, JR., ESQ. Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi, PC 105 Eisenhauer Pkwy Roseland, NJ 07068 STEPHEN M. KINDSETH, ESQ. Zeisler & Zeisler, P.C. 10 Middle Street, 15th FL Bridgeport, CT 06604 For Taurus Fund, LLC: MICHAEL T. CONWAY, ESQ. Lazare Potter Giacovas & Moyle, LLP 747 Third Avenue New York, NY 10017 For G Club Operations, LLC: JEFFREY M. SKLARZ, ESQ. Green & Sklarz, LLC One Audubon Street New Haven, CT 06511 For Chris Lee: ERIC T. SCHMITT, ESQ. The Quinlan Law Firm, LLC 233 S. Wacker Drive Suite 6142 Chicago, IL 60606 For Greenwich Land, LLC AUSTIN D. KIM, ESQ. and Hing Chi Hgok: Meister Seelig & Fein LLP 125 Park Avenue New York, NY 10017\n\n2\n\nAPPEARANCES: (Cont'd.) For Bravo Luck Limited: FRANCIS J. LAWALL, ESQ. Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders, LLP 3000 Two Logan Square 18th and Arch Streets Philadelphia, PA 19103\n\n3\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 4 (Proceedings commenced at 1:11 p.m.) THE COURTROOM DEPUTY: Case No. 22-50073, Ho Wan Kwok. THE COURT: Okay. Good afternoon. If we could have appearances for the record please starting with the Chapter 11 Trustee. MR. DESPINS: Good afternoon, Your Honor. Luc Despins, Chapter 11 Trustee. MR. BASSETT: Good afternoon, Your Honor. Nick Bassett from Paul Hastings on behalf of the Chapter 11 Trustee. MR. LINSEY: Good afternoon, Your Honor. Patrick Linsey of Neubert, Pepe & Monteith for the Chapter 11 Trustee. MS. CLAIBORN: Good afternoon, Your Honor. Holley Claiborn for the U.S. Trustee. MR. SARNOFF: Good afternoon, Your Honor. Stuart Sarnoff of O'Melveny & Myers on behalf of Creditor PAX. MS. SMITH: Good afternoon, Your Honor. Annecca Smith of Robinson & Cole, Connecticut counsel for Creditor PAX. MR. KAPLAN: Good afternoon, Your Honor. Jonathan Kaplan of Pullman & Comley on behalf of the Committee. MR. KINDSETH: Good afternoon, Your Honor. Stephen Kindseth on behalf of Mei Guo. Case 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 4 of 31\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 5 MR. DELLA FERA: Good afternoon, Your Honor. Sam Della Fera also on behalf of Mei Guo. MR. SKLARZ: Good afternoon, Your Honor. Jeffrey Sklarz for G Club. MR. SCHMITT: Good afternoon, Your Honor. Eric Schmitt on behalf of Chris Lee. MR. CONWAY: Good afternoon, Your Honor. Michael Conway on behalf of Taurus Funds. MR. LAWALL: Good afternoon, Your Honor. Fran Lawall on behalf of Troutman. MR. KIM: Good afternoon, Your Honor. Austin Kim for the Greenwich Land, LLC and for Hing Chi Hgok. THE COURT: Is anyone else making their appearance this afternoon? (No response) THE COURT: All right. The people that are not making an appearance and are not going to speak, I would ask that you turn off your cameras and mute your microphones, please. Thank you. All right. Trustee Despins, this is your request for a status conference, so please proceed? MR. DESPINS: Thank you, Your Honor. And we filed on the docket, Mr. Linsey filed on the docket, probably a hour or so ago the presentation that Mr. Bassett, my colleague, would probably post some of the Case 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 5 of 31\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 6 of 31\n\n| | Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024
6 |\n|----|---------------------------------------------------------------|\n| 1 | relevant pages.
If he can get control of the screen from |\n| 2 | your courtroom deputy, Mr. Bassett will be showing some of |\n| 3 | the pages during the presentation.
I don't know if we -- |\n| 4 | how we do that practically, but we've done that in the past. |\n| 5 | THE COURT:
I'm sure we can figure out a way.
So |\n| 6 | give us a moment.
The courtroom deputy is looking at the |\n| 7 | issue now. |\n| 8 | So something was filed in the last hour? |\n| 9 | MR. DESPINS:
Yes.
And it was also sent to the |\n| 10 | courtroom deputy address.
It's a PowerPoint presentation. |\n| 11 | But Mr. Bassett has the document.
He just needs |\n| 12 | to be allowed to take control of the screen to post some of |\n| 13 | the relevant pages while I give the narrative behind those |\n| 14 | slides. |\n| 15 | I thought we can start, Your Honor, in any event, |\n| 16 | because some of the first slides are not -- we don't need to |\n| 17 | post them necessarily.
So let me -- if that's okay with, |\n| 18 | Your Honor, would you start the -- |\n| 19 | THE COURT:
Let me just ask the courtroom deputy |\n| 20 | one thing Trustee Despins. |\n| 21 | MR. DESPINS:
Okay. |\n| 22 | THE COURT:
Can you hear Trustee Despins okay? |\n| 23 | THE COURTROOM DEPUTY:
Yes. |\n| 24 | THE COURT:
All right.
Yeah.
If you could just |\n| 25 | speak a little bit closer I think to your microphone.
It's |\n| | |\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 7 of 31\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 7 a little garbled. MR. DESPINS: I will. I will, Your Honor. THE COURT: Thank you. MR. DESPINS: Okay. So I don't know, will Mr. Bassett be able to post the documents? THE COURT: I'm getting a yes. MR. DESPINS: Okay. THE COURT: All right. So how -- do you want that displayed right now, Trustee Despins? Is that what you're asking? MR. DESPINS: Mr. Bassett will present the pages as I give the narrative behind them. Here we go. Okay. So we can skip the first opening page. And you also should have that, Your Honor. So the second page, basically it's to mention that we had our last status conference on January 10th where we covered the tolling of the two-year statute of limitations. And we believe that given that we passed this important milestone of the two-year anniversary, that today would be a good time to both cover some of the points that -- or some of the litigation that's been pending, but also look forward to a game plan to handle some of those. So turning to page 2, the -- there's a list there. And Your Honor knows, probably patently aware, of all of these litigations that are pending, except the status on\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 8 of 31\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 8 appeal, you may not know that. So this chart was prepared, and the next page as well, prepared to -- for the benefit of parties in interest mostly because Your Honor already knows most of this, but these are the adversary proceedings that we filed before the huge wave of adversary proceedings that were filed in the ten-day period or so before February 15th. So you have the Lady May, Sherry-Netherland, Greenwich Land, the Bombardier Jet, the escrowed funds. Turning to the next page, page 3, the HCHK Technologies, the Taurus Fund litigation, the Golden Spring, the Lamp Capital, and Ace Decade, and the (indiscernible) which is the motorcycles and cars. So this gets you, Your Honor, but also the parties in interest, the status of where these various proceedings sit right now including the status on the appeal of some of them. I would just draw Your Honor's attention to, on page 3, the Ace Decade matter, because you'll see at the end of the blurb that describes the adversary proceedings status, it says a six-month stay of new case proceeding likely to be granted, that's a stay application that was filed before the U.K. Court in the UBS proceeding. There was some -- there were some skirmishes there with people who were allegedly representing Ace Decade and\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 9 Dawn State, so we opposed that. But we believe based on the status today that the Court is likely to grant that six- month stay. The purpose of the stay is for us to establish that, in fact, Mr. Kwok, or because I'm the successor, I own or control the shares of Ace Decade which is an issue that is being debated by the people who pretend to represent Ace Decade in the U.K. litigation at this time. And so you know, we commenced that litigation against Yvette Wang, and also a Swiss resident, and Ace Decade itself. There's a motion to dismiss that was filed by Yvette Wang. We responded to that last week. And obviously we have an interest in making sure that that proceeding moves quickly because of that six-month clock running in the U.K. Then on page 4, we describe other proceedings. Again, you're obviously painfully familiar with some of them. The PAX litigation regarding the demonstrations and harassments, and the status on appeal is described on page 4. And the *Genever US vs. AIG*, that's the insurance coverage case that you heard summary judgment on a week or so, maybe ten days ago. Case 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 9 of 31\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 10 of 31\n\n| | Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024
10 |\n|----|--------------------------------------------------------------|\n| 1 | Now, moving on to page 5, pending main case |\n| 2 | appeals, I want to make sure that Your Honor is aware of |\n| 3 | this, but to make sure you know that there are -- and |\n| 4 | parties in interest also know that there are two matters on |\n| 5 | appeal right now other than the ones that are already listed |\n| 6 | on pages 3 and 4. |\n| 7 | One is relating to the corporate governance order, |\n| 8 | which is the issue of sending a letter to U.K. counsel. |\n| 9 | That has been stayed contentually because we are hopeful |\n| 10 | that the litigation before Your Honor will finally resolve |\n| 11 | the ownership of Ace Decade and at the same time any |\n| 12 | privilege that would be associated with Ace Decade and its |\n| 13 | subsidiary Dawn State. |\n| 14 | So the district court inquired about the status of |\n| 15 | that and the parties had agreed to stay that issue for a |\n| 16 | period of 90 days.
The next report on that is due March |\n| 17 | 12th. |\n| 18 | And at the bottom of that page, page 5, there's |\n| 19 | the Guo matter. |\n| 20 | This is the -- your orders compelling production |\n| 21 | of documents and the order to seize for violation of Your |\n| 22 | Honor's order.
And that has been solely briefed since |\n| 23 | September 8th and we're awaiting the district court's |\n| 24 | opinion of that issue. |\n| 25 | Moving on to page 6, other Connecticut District |\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 11 of 31\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 11 Court matters. There's the *Guo vs. Manning*. This is the writ of mandamus that was filed. The Court has not asked for support. The district court has not asked for a briefing of that matter and has indicated that it would take the matter in due course. So that's all we know about that. Next is the *Greenwich Land vs. Despins*. That's the motion to withdraw the reference. That has been fully briefed but the Court has not scheduled a hearing or issued a decision. Again, the district court has not scheduled a hearing or issued a decision on that. The last one on that page is also a motion to withdraw the reference by Mei Guo. And that's in the Bombardier adversary proceeding. That motion has been fully briefed since November 11th in the district court. No oral argument has been scheduled by the district judge. So this is all stuff that you are quite familiar with, but not necessarily all parties in interest. We thought it was important to cover it quickly. Now, we're getting into what has been filed recently, which is the meat of this presentation. So as Your Honor knows, in the ten days or so leading up to February 15th, we filed 278 avoidance actions, and we describe them as they're recent avoidance actions defined as such.\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 12 of 31\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 12 Your Honor, we were duty bound to bring those because we have all the evidence necessary to bring those claims. And I would, you know, I would hope that people would understand that that process, and that was led by Mr. Linsey and his firm, was quite hectic. And we've already received one call from a party saying I can't believe you sued us. We are victims of Kwok, not people on his side. And I would say to these folks that we will absolutely listen and talk to them and talk to others that may have similar grievances, if there are any. As you can imagine, Your Honor, when we filed 278 complaints in a very short period of time, it's, you know, it's quite a task to accomplish. And it is possible, I doubt that, but it's possible that we've asserted a claim against people that were victims of Kwok, but I -- that remains to be seen. I just -- the message there is that we will look at that. And we're happy to talk to anyone who believes that they were sued improperly. I would say at the next bullet that given that Kwok states or Mr. Kwok's position has been that he has no assets, virtually all of these adversary proceedings are based on transfers by the debtor's alter egos. And these types of claims are actual intent fraudulent transfer claims, and also post-petition transfer claims, Section 549\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 13 of 31\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 13 claims. There's approximately, and we're rounding the numbers here, in excess of \\$610 million that are being sought in these 278 complaints. In terms of the alter egos, Your Honor, some of these complaints relate to alter egos where you've already entered an order saying that they are the alter ego. That would be Golden Spring and Lamp Capital for example. There are other alter egos where Your Honor has that complaint under advisement, meaning there was a full briefing, and Your Honor is considering whether to grant summary judgment or not. And then the third category are alter egos that -- where we sought a ruling on alter ego on February 15th. And I'll get to that on the next page. So these are the three categories of avoidance actions that arise from three types of alter egos. I would want -- I wanted to point out that one of the recent avoidance actions seeks to avoid transfers among the debtor's alter egos. That's adversary proceeding 24- 05275. And, you know, I want to pause on that because it may appear to be inconsistent. And it is. It's alternative relief. We made it very clear in that complaint that we don't intend to pursue that complaint unless we were to fail\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 14 to obtain alter ego rulings from the entities that made these transfers. So typically we call this pocket A to pocket B, a transfer from an entity like Golden Spring to HCHK for example. It doesn't really move the dial because those two entities, in our world, we believe are controlled and owned and are the alter ego of Kwok. So in theory, there's no avoidance action there because we're suing the ultimate recipients of these funds. But it is possible that we're not successful in obtaining alter ego rulings regarding these entities and, therefore, we did not want to be in the position that we would be time barred from asserting such claims if Your Honor or, on appeal, if a court rules that the alter ego finding was not appropriate. So that action, I want to be clear, is pled in the alternative only if the other complaint, that I will describe in a second, is not granted, or only if some of these complaints seeking alter ego are undone on appeal or otherwise. At the bottom here we say, given that our investigation is ongoing, it is likely that certain of the complaints filed in the recent avoidance actions will be amended to increase the amounts of the avoidable transfer alleged. Case 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 14 of 31\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 15 of 31\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 15 As I said when I testified the other day in court, that we're getting new information every day and we know that some of the complaints will need to be amended to add dollars to the counts, the avoidance counts. Turning to page 8, Your Honor, in addition to the 278 adversary proceedings, we also (indiscernible) two separate adversary proceedings that are -- that should be discussed. The first one is an omnibus alter ego action. Basically, it's all the other entities that are in the Kwok world that we believe that are alter egos of Mr. Kwok. Such as, and we list them, some of them there, Bravo Luck, G Club, Saraca Media, Himalaya, et cetera, Rule of Law Foundation, but we had not done that until February 15th. So there's 33 entities governed by that alter ego complaint. In addition to that, we filed a civil RICO complaint against 57 defendants asserting cause of actions for substantive RICO violations and conspiracy to violate RICO, with some of the predicate acts being bankruptcy fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, violation of the National Stolen Property Act, money laundering, obstruction of justice, et cetera. That's at the bottom of page 8. Turning to page 9, we say that we're actively attempting to serve each of the complaints, that's the 278 plus the RICO and the alter ego complaints, and we may\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 16 of 31\n\n| | Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024
16 |\n|----|--------------------------------------------------------------|\n| 1 | eventually need the Court's assistance with service issues. |\n| 2 | We hoped not to bother you with this, but we already know |\n| 3 | that we're -- that there's going to be some reluctant |\n| 4 | participants. |\n| 5 | The next point is very important, Your Honor, |\n| 6 | which is that notable issue, between on the one hand the |\n| 7 | omnibus alter ego action in the civil RICO and on the other |\n| 8 | matter, the criminal indictment of the debtor, there is an |\n| 9 | overlap here.
There's an overlap in terms of the names of |\n| 10 | the entities that are described in the criminal indictment |\n| 11 | as part of the Kwok enterprise.
And there are other |\n| 12 | overlaps as well given that we intend to seek a stay, which |\n| 13 | would commence after the answer deadlines of the omnibus |\n| 14 | alter ego and the civil RICO actions pending the completion |\n| 15 | of the criminal trial. |\n| 16 | We have not filed this yet, but I wanted to give |\n| 17 | the Court a heads-up that we intended to do that. |\n| 18 | The next point is that there would be a safety |\n| 19 | valve feature to the stay of these actions because, this is |\n| 20 | for the omnibus alter ego action, it's to protect the estate |\n| 21 | against the eminence of potential dissipation and/or |\n| 22 | transfer of assets by defendants. |\n| 23 | So we know that there are some assets that we're |\n| 24 | going after, real estate mostly, and we don't want to be in |\n| 25 | a position where there's a pending transaction to sell the |\n| | |\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 17 real estate to a third party and we would be stayed from doing anything. So that's a -- it will be a carve out in the stay motion that we intend to file. Also I wanted to point out, the next bullet, is that we may need to file new adversary proceedings during the proposed stay period to react to newly identified assets. We believe there is at least one of these in the pipeline. As to the recent avoidance actions, to the extent the Court is supportive of the mediation process that we describe on the next page, page 10, then the mediation order would govern the stay. And as to proceedings that are not stayed through the mediation, the recent avoidance action states on alter ego rulings already issued by the Court would go forward. So we're talking basically Golden Spring, Lamp Capital. I believe there may be another one, but at least those two. We also point out that the stay would not apply to matters that the Court currently has under advisement. And the most important part, Your Honor, is on page 10, point 8, is the management of the adversary proceedings process. We're fully aware, Your Honor, that this is a lot of litigation potentially and there are case management Case 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 17 of 31\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 18 of 31\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 18 implications here. And we have judicial and monetary resource issues. And we're very focused on not paralyzing these cases with such issues, and by that I mean the 278 complaints. Our proposal to deal with that, and I -- I want to say this was under the rubric of, you know, if you don't ask, you don't get, and I know that it may be perceived as presumptuous a little bit, but we would like the Court to consider approving a global mediation process for the 278 avoidance actions because we believe that such a process could be very productive. In fact, it's been used in many other cases. I remember it well in *Enron*. Judge Roper, who was not the *Enron* judge, but his colleague, handled all the category of avoidance actions involving derivatives, and I think he settled all of them. And there were numerous such actions. And in other cases, like the (indiscernible) technique has been used as well. And this is where again I say this may be a bit presumptuous, but the Court has already appointed in the past, Judge Tancredi, to be a mediator in our case. And in our view, subject to obviously his availability -- I know that, like you, he has a very busy docket -- and willingness to participate, you know, it would\n\nFiore Reporting and Transcription Service, Inc.\n\nbe ideal if he could serve as the lead mediator on this\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 19 of 31\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 19 project. And the purpose of the mediation is to stay all actions before Your Honor. And the focus that we stated in the second bullet there, which is that we would like to prioritize mediation efforts with respect to defendants that at first blush, and I have focused on that first blush, may not have any connections with the debtor's various deeds. And by that, I'll give examples. I hope I don't regret that. But, you know, Federal Express or Apple or Amazon. It doesn't mean that there's no claim against these entities, but it's a much different claim than other claims that are being asserted. And the hope here is that we have an aggressive mediation program where we could get rid of a number of these claims for the benefit of the estate, but also for the benefit of defendants, because that would avoid litigation before Your Honor. So again, we have not contacted Justice Tancredi. That's why I said this may be presumptuous on our part. And you're just seeing this as I'm reading it, so you may not have any immediate reaction, but I wanted to put that potential program on the table because I believe that that would be an efficient way for everyone to try to deal with these claims.\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 20 of 31\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 20 At the bottom of page 10, we mention that the Trustee has entered into 24 tolling agreements, which Your Honor has assigned stipulations. The Trustee's goal is to deal with these claims during the tolling period with the defendants and the commencement of adversary proceedings. Again, such tolled parties to be another exception to the stay discussed earlier. Turning, Your Honor, to page 11, there are other issues that I thought should be mentioned. The first one is the sealing of confidential documents. You've already alluded to that recently in your (indiscernible). This confidentiality structuring we have is costing us a fortune, and it's time-consuming, and it's really in 95 percent, 98 percent of the cases not necessary. There's no secrets here. There's no secret recipe. What Mr. Kwok or his affiliates paid for an airplane or for a Ferrari or for other luxury items is not a confidential issue. I would point out that the banks that are producing information to us, and they've been very helpful, but they are designating everything as confidential. Why? Because they're afraid of getting sued by Mr. Kwok and others.\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 21 of 31\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 21 And we understand why they're doing that, but we need to break this logjam. Because I can tell you, Your Honor, that there are hours spent redacting these various complaints and all that just to make sure we're not -- nobody can cry foul that we released, unintentionally, confidential information. So that is to be continued. We are soliciting the consent of the various parties to try to break this confidential logjam. We hope that they will consent and we're able to release more of the complaint or at least maybe entire complaints so that everyone can see them. And if not, if it's not consensual, we intend to file a motion with Your Honor to have a better system than the system we have now, because I -- you know, this is not an operating business that has all sorts of confidential issues. Frankly, there's nothing, you know, practically nothing, should be confidential and, therefore, we believe that we need to resolve that issue. The second point I want to mention is that we're going to continue the Rule 2004 investigation. I would say not at the same pace that it took place in the fall of 2023, but there are still some issues that need to be pursued there. The last point on this is the bar date. A lot of\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 22 people have asked me about the bar date. And I want to tell you our view at this point is that it does not make sense to amend or to open, reopen the bar date at this time. As you may recall, the bar date was February 17th, 2023. That was a while before the debtor's arrest on March 15th, 2023. So a number of transaction parties that have transactions with the debtors were not aware of the bar date or were not sensitized to it. Now they are. So you might say, well, why don't we reopen the bar date for those people only just know? In theory that might make sense except that what I see here I think is likely is that there will be other events. I'll give you an example. Like the Mahwah Mansion. You know, again, that's an example that was given before about maybe amending the bar date to allow people to file claims arising out of the Mahwah Mansion because they did not know about it. That's one example. But there may be other Mahwah Mansions. And, therefore, we would be wasteful in my opinion to amend the bar date today until we see the dust settle on a number of issues. Because what may happen is we may have to reopen it later and which would be really not cost-effective and could be wasteful. Case 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 22 of 31\n\nI wanted to mention, Your Honor, that's not on the\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 23 of 31\n\n| | Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024
23 |\n|----|--------------------------------------------------------------|\n| 1 | PowerPoint, that we filed a motion recently regarding the |\n| 2 | contents of storage units that we have inventoried and that |\n| 3 | we believe are owned by either Mr. Kwok or by Golden Spring, |\n| 4 | that is -- that was filed last week I believe. |\n| 5 | And obviously we want to proceed with that because |\n| 6 | the owner of the storage unit is saying, okay -- will be |\n| 7 | saying I'm going to sell this stuff.
And I told him you |\n| 8 | cannot do that.
Automatic stay, et cetera. |\n| 9 | But, you know, there is a point where these people |\n| 10 | need to be taken care of.
And we need to sell the artwork |\n| 11 | and everything that's in there as soon as possible to |\n| 12 | generate cash for the estate. |\n| 13 | So, Your Honor, that is in sum what I wanted to |\n| 14 | cover. |\n| 15 | But I would ask Mr. Bassett, if he can, to put up |\n| 16 | another chart or a one-page, yes, that's one page of a |\n| 17 | chart, Your Honor, that we intend to file with the Court |\n| 18 | soon that gives you and all parties in interest a complete |\n| 19 | list of -- push up the first page up a little -- one out of |\n| 20 | eight of all the defendants, and what types of claims, and |\n| 21 | for what amounts are pending against these defendants. |\n| 22 | So there are basically two types of claims. |\n| 23 | They're pre-petition transfers and post-petition transfers. |\n| 24 | And you can see in there a number of the defendants. |\n| 25 | And that chart, again, I think would be helpful |\n| | |\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 24 of 31\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 24 for Your Honor to have this all in one place, and also for parties in interest to have that as well. So we intend to file that with the Court promptly, but I wanted you to see the format so that you could have a sense of why we're filing it. And I think it's just it's self-explanatory. And it's listed by order of the adversary proceeding numbers starting with 05 all the way down to 280 something. So, Your Honor, that sort of completes our presentation. I've been going pretty fast, but I'm obviously happy to entertain any questions you may have or issues that parties in interest want to raise with the Court. THE COURT: I do not have any questions at this time. Thank you, Trustee Despins. Did you want Attorney Bassett to report on something as well? Or, I wasn't sure if you had anything else you wanted to add? MR. DESPINS: No. I would -- So my only question, and, again, I apologize for being so forward, but would it be acceptable if we at this point contacted Judge Tancredi to -- just to determine whether he has any interest in the mediation program or -- THE COURT: No. I'll have to do that. MR. DESPINS: -- is that something that's going to\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 25 of 31\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 25 be -- THE COURT: The way that we do that in -- MR. DESPINS: Okay. THE COURT: -- in Connecticut is the judges have that discussion, because there's a lot of issues that have to be reviewed. So I'll talk -- I'll speak with Judge Tancredi when he's available. He may not be available this week, but I will -- I know I will see -- I will talk to him as soon as he is available. MR. DESPINS: Thank you, Your Honor, for clarifying that. So, no, I don't. I think, unless Mr. Bassett has something else to add, I think that covers what we wanted to cover today. THE COURT: Well, actually, now you -- that you have raised that issue, I do have a question, which is fine, which is I'm glad you raised that issue. As you said, I haven't seen what you just displayed so I haven't had an opportunity to really look at it. I've heard what you've said. You want -- you're looking for Judge Tancredi to be the lead mediator. Does that -- that to me infers that you think there will be more than one mediator? Is that what you're talking the process is? MR. DESPINS: I'm implying that, Your Honor,\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 26 obviously because of the number. But I want to be clear about the 278. That might be misleading because I know that there's a bunch of these that would not be sent to mediation. For example, all the ones involving the Kwok family and associates. There's no point in sending that to mediation. Unfortunately, we need to bring that to duke it out for a better -- for lack of a better term in court. So therefore, it's not 278. It's less than that. But it's still a huge number and, therefore, I didn't think it was palatable to go to Judge Tancredi and say, hey, we do you have time to handle almost 200 complaints. I think that would be a bit much. And, therefore, if he's interested in being the lead, then I guess he could suggest other mediators that would report to him, that would be under his jurisdiction, or whatever, but I think that I would leave that to him. But I think that if he had any interest in being the lead mediator, that would be a great contribution to the case. THE COURT: Well, one of the things that I recall from the motion to establish the avoidance action procedures is no party, I think, if my memory is correct, no defendant who is served with a complaint has to file an answer for at least 60 days, correct? MR. DESPINS: That's correct, Your Honor. Case 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 26 of 31\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 27 of 31\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 27 THE COURT: So what are you going to be doing in those 60 days, assuming that -- let's assume mediation isn't up and running in those 60 days, what are you going to be doing and your team to try to resolve or whittle down these adversary proceedings so as -- because we know sometimes people want -- you've already gotten a call you said, right? MR. DESPINS: Yes. THE COURT: Sometimes people may want to resolve these right away without the need for those matters to go to mediation, so what is your plan with regard to attempting to identify those types of actions and see whether or not there's an expeditious resolution short of mediation? MR. DESPINS: Yes. I'm glad you raised that. My team made me promise I wouldn't use the term, but I will use it, but I think that we're going to try to have like an early-bird discount like they have in restaurants in Florida. So we're going to try to settle ourselves a bunch of these because some of them have called us and say I can't believe you sued us, et cetera, et cetera, but, but, you know, dot, dot, dot, you know, they want to talk. So we obviously will entertain all of those. And because the goal is to settle these without any litigation before Your Honor and as fast as possible. And I think that once people see that there's\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 28 of 31\n\n| | Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024
28 |\n|----|------------------------------------------------------------------|\n| 1 | momentum to do that, others will join as well, because |\n| 2 | there's always the fear they're the first one \"that we're |\n| 3 | willing to pay,\" quote/unquote.
You know, I don't mean |\n| 4 | they're actually going to pay.
But to offer discounts for |\n| 5 | sought -- from the sought-for amounts in the -- for people |\n| 6 | that are willing to settle claims.
So obviously that's open |\n| 7 | to everyone. |\n| 8 | THE COURT:
Okay.
Well, I think that at some |\n| 9 | point, even if Judge Tancredi -- sorry, they're doing |\n| 10 | construction outside the door here, so I'm having a little |\n| 11 | difficulty hearing at the moment -- but the -- even if Judge |\n| 12 | Tancredi is available, I don't know that he's going to be |\n| 13 | able to get things up and running immediately.
You know.
I |\n| 14 | mean, I think there's going to be some time frame. |\n| 15 | So that's why I asked the question about what your |\n| 16 | plan is, because my at least view of the first 60 days was |\n| 17 | that that would be a period of time to have some |\n| 18 | discussions. |\n| 19 | My recollection is also that that 60-day period |\n| 20 | can be extended by agreement of the parties.
And so that -- |\n| 21 | MR. DESPINS:
Yes. |\n| 22 | THE COURT:
-- obviously would be helpful to |\n| 23 | everyone, including whoever -- if this -- if the mediation |\n| 24 | process goes into effect, you know, it would be helpful to |\n| 25 | the mediator as well.
Okay? |\n| | |\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 29 of 31\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 29 MR. DESPINS: Yes, Your Honor. I heard you loud and clear. And there's no magic to the 60 days. I mean, obviously we don't want to end up in never-ending stays, but the goal here is to resolve as many of these without litigation before Your Honor and that's the message I want to convey. And if it doesn't work with Judge Tancredi, we'll use another approach. But that's certainly the goal. As you know, we had no choice but to file these by the 15th and we did that. And it doesn't mean that we want to have trials on 250 or 270 complaints. Far from it. THE COURT: I understand. But if you have to, you have to. I mean, that's -- it's fine. It will work out either way. I just am asking the question on the timing because, even if Judge Tancredi is available and he has no conflicts and can handle this, I don't think it's going to happen overnight. MR. DESPINS: Understood. THE COURT: I think it's going to take some time to get things up and running. MR. DESPINS: Understood, Your Honor. THE COURT: Okay. Does anyone else wish to be heard this afternoon? (No response)\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 30 of 31\n\n Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024 30 THE COURT: Well, that might be the first time that we've ever had a hearing that only Trustee Despins has spoken in, so maybe we should just conclude and -- MR. DESPINS: I'm done. THE COURT: -- see if that will happen again sometime. All right. Well, hearing nothing from anyone else who has -- who is participating in this status conference, then I think that there's nothing the Court can do today other than take into consideration your request, Trustee Despins, look at the presentation that you've made, because, as you've said, I didn't have a chance to see it, it was just filed in the last hour, and we were in court, and go from there. Now, are you -- are you seeking at this time another -- to set a date for another status conference or should we just wait and see how things develop and you can do that when you think that's appropriate? MR. DESPINS: May we get back to Your Honor on that? THE COURT: You certainly can. MR. DESPINS: I need to talk to the team about it. THE COURT: Okay. All right. MR. DESPINS: Thank you, Your Honor. THE COURT: Thank you, all.\n\nCase 22-50073 Doc 2982 Filed 03/07/24 Entered 03/07/24 12:49:51 Page 31 of 31\n\n| | Ho Wan Kwok - February 27, 2024
31 |\n|----|--------------------------------------------------------------|\n| 1 | ALL COUNSEL:
Thank you, Your Honor. |\n| 2 | THE COURT:
All right.
That concludes today's |\n| 3 | status conference.
And that is our last matter on today's |\n| 4 | calendar, so court is adjourned. |\n| | |\n| 5 | (Proceedings concluded at 1:53 p.m.) |\n| 6 | I, CHRISTINE FIORE, Certified Electronic Court Reporter and |\n| 7 | Transcriber, certify that the foregoing is a correct |\n| 8 | transcript from the official electronic sound recording of |\n| 9 | the proceedings in the above-entitled matter. |\n| 10 | |\n| 11 | |\n| 12 | |\n| 13 | March 7, 2024 |\n| 14 | Christine Fiore, CERT |\n| 15 | Transcriber |\n| 16 | |\n| 17 | |\n| 18 | |\n| | |\n| 19 | |\n| 20 | |\n| 21 | |\n| 22 | |\n| 23 | |\n| 24 | |\n| | |\n| | |","body_zh":null,"key_entities":["Kwok","Despins","Ho Wan Kwok","Guo","RICO","Je","Paul Hastings","CIPA","HCHK","Luc Despins","Himalaya","Saraca"],"ecf_references":[],"word_count":7493,"status":"published","published_at":"2024-03-07 00:00:00","created_at":"2024-03-07","updated_at":"2026-07-07 08:10:05"}