Blixseth Fraud Trial
Blixseth’s Fate in a Judge’s Hands
Does Tim Blixseth need to repay mega-millions to Yellowstone Club creditors? A bankruptcy judge holds the answer.By Amy Linn, 2-26-10
 |
|
 | |
| Tim Blixseth leaves federal court in Missoula last year. NewWest photo by Daniel Doherty. | |
|
The fate of Yellowstone Club founder Tim Blixseth, and the health of his wallet, depend on the fine print of a divorce settlement and a variety of accounting questions that were argued in exquisite detail in federal court in Missoula today.
Blixseth stands accused of fraud and “breach of fiduciary duty” related to a $375 million loan he obtained from Credit Suisse in 2005. The 59-year-old former billionaire spent more than $200 million of the cash for his personal use, buying everything from high-end real estate to airplanes.
Among other things, according to court documents, Blixseth used the Credit Suisse loan to pay off a $3.9 million balance on two private jets; buy a $28 million private island in Turks in Caicos; purchase a $28 million chateau outside of Paris and a $40 million golf resort in Mexico; and make an $11.9 million payoff for the California home he once owned with ex-wife Edra-- the 30,000-square-foot Porcupine Creek estate near Palm Springs, complete with a private 18-hole golf course.
“What was your intention in terms of repaying the Credit Suisse loan?” Blixseth’s lawyer, Michael Flynn, asked the former timber baron on the witness stand today.
“The intent was to pay every penny back with every last drop of blood in my body,” Blixseth replied. “Where I come from, a deal is a deal, and if we signed up, we pay it back.”
Whether or not the Yellowstone Club’s finances were fractionally healthy enough to shoulder such a massive debt load-- and whether paying the money back was ever possible--is one of the many questions that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ralph Kirscher will be sorting through in coming weeks as he decides whether Blixseth’s actions violated federal bankruptcy code and Montana law.
The three-day trial ended today shortly before 4 p.m., leaving Kirscher with a mountain of documents and conflicting testimony to sort through. Creditors are demanding that Blixseth repay as much as $286 million they say he siphoned off to a Nevada company in an asset-protection scheme.
At issue in the civil matter is whether taking the overly-burdensome Credit Suisse (CS) loan was a breach of fiduciary duty; whether Blixseth’s initial and subsequent transfers of the CS cash were fraudulent; and whether the Yellowstone Club founder gave as good as he got: in short, whether creditors got “reasonably equivalent value” for the $209 million that Blixseth took for his own enrichment.
Other linchpins of the case involve whether “releases” in Blixseth’s divorce settlement protect him from any liability in the matter, and whether the Yellowstone Club was insolvent at the time of the loan or became insolvent because of it.
In court, looking confident, Blixseth testified that the Yellowstone Club was definitely solvent at the time of the loan, and for years afterward.
Key evidence of the club’s value, he said, is that in the winter and spring of 2008, CrossHarbor Capital Partners, led by real estate investor Sam Byrne, wanted to buy the club for between $450 million and $407 million.
Said Blixseth,"If the CrossHarbor sale had gone through, I would have paid off the $207 million to Credit Suisse and reached a settlement with B shareholders” (the Yellowstone Club investors who’d sued because they claimed they were stiffed by the CS loan). Blixseth said he also would have paid the applicable taxes, estimated at $50 to $100 million, if the real estate deal closed.
It didn’t. Blixseth said CrossHarbor kept “nickel and dime-ing” him on price. “They’re money guys, and money doesn’t have much conscience,” he testified.
CrossHarbor, the Boston-based investment firm that finally did buy the Yellowstone Club last summer for $115 million, describes the failed transaction very differently—as do a number of observers who say the deal fell through because Tim Blixseth killed it. After months of negotiating, with no end in sight, CrossHarbor says it asked Blixseth for an extension to keep the talks going without forfeiting millions in earnest money. When Blixseth refused, CrossHarbor was forced to withdraw, according to the firm. In addition, CrossHarbor says Blixseth by the spring of 2008 knew divorce was near, and knew that if he transferred the property to Edra in a marital settlement agreement, he could avoid the $50-plus million tax bill.
Blixseth, meanwhile, told the court that he had “plenty of ability” to pay off the debt. He was watched from the sidelines by his new wife.
“We never missed a payment or were late on the payment in 2007, 2006, 2005,” Blixseth said.
“What about your personal ability to pay it?” Flynn asked.
Blixseth hesitated. “Take the fourth quarter 2005--I had substantial cash, a lot of it from the loan I took,” he said. He also thought about selling Porcupine Creek, he told the court. “Several people put the price [for Porcupine Creek] in the $250 to $300 million range, plus we had other assets.”
A massive conspiracy—a credulity-straining one, in the opinion of creditors-- destroyed the Yellowstone Club, Blixseth told the court.
“I believe in my opinion that the Yellowstone Club bankruptcy was pre-planned by CrossHarbor, implemented by CrossHarbor to get the price to about a 72 percent discount from what they’d been willing to pay for it,” Blixseth said.
The day’s other witnesses had very different stories to tell.
Moses Moore, the long-time controller at the Yellowstone Club, told the court that Blixseth had a habit of using the 13,600-acre private resort to wheel and deal to his own advantage. Shortly before his divorce from Edra in August 2008, Blixseth flipped properties from the club for huge profits, Moore said. In one case Blixseth acquired five lots for $3 million apiece and sold them a few months later for $5.5 million each, a $12.5 million gain, according to Moore.
Perhaps more startling was the testimony of Michael Snow, one of a group of early “class B” investors in the club that included Tour de France champion Greg LeMond, LeMond’s in-laws, and an investment banker, Jorge Jasson. Each paid paid $750,000 for a 1 percent stake in two LLCs that owned the Yellowstone Club.
After the Credit Suisse loan in 2005, Blixseth offered to buy out their stakes for an estimated $3.2 million, despite the fact that, based on property appraisals used to get the loan in the first place, their share was worth at least three times more than that, the group alleged.
When LeMond sued Blixseth in 2006 over the unfair dividend, Snow was the only one in the group who didn’t join the suit, which ended in a $38 million settlement. Snow is seeking $22 million in a legal action of his own, he told the court today.
Snow testified that Blixseth corresponded “extremely infrequently” with the investors, and never told them about the true nature of the Credit Suisse loan.
“I was told it [the CS loan] would be spent on capital expenditures to complete the development of the Yellowstone Club,” Snow said. He also thought Blixseth would use the money to finish things like the centerpiece of the millionaires-only, private ski-and-golf club.
“The roads were not completed, more equipment and ski runs needed to be put into place, and there was an uncompleted Warren Miller Lodge,” Snow said.
Brian Glasser, an attorney for the Yellowstone Club Liquidating Trust—the group charged with securing assets to pay off the mountain of claims in the bankruptcy—said Snow’s testimony proved that Blixseth had a pattern of keeping investors “in the dark,” thus violating his legal duty.
(Judge Kirscher called a brief recess after Snow’s testimony, and Blixseth and Snow retreated to a meeting room outside the courtroom for several minutes. When they emerged, both smiling, Blixseth said they were involved in settlement negotiations. Blixseth and Snow declined to reveal what had been discussed.)
By day’s end, Kent Mordy, a forensic accountant, spent two hours on the stand describing how business projections and other accounting measures that Blixseth relied on were substantially off-base. According to Mordy, the Yellowstone Club was “hopelessly insolvent” by the summer of 2008, during the time the Blixseths were hammering out their divorce. By November, the club had filed for bankruptcy. The Credit Suisse loan had been a fatal blow.
“The club was losing $2.6 million a month, on an average monthly basis,” Mordy told Steven Hoard, an attorney for the liquidating trust. “And that’s before interest on the loan, which was an additional $1.5 million a month. All in all, it was a very large number that had to be fed every month.”
Blixseth, however, looked upbeat and relaxed as he left the courtroom. When asked how he felt about the trial he said, cheerfully, “I’m still alive.”
For more on the Yellowstone Club saga, see our archive of coverage here.
Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.
Comments
But that doesn't include Blixster. Ya gotta give the man audacity.
"We pay it back", except just about every other time Tim had the opportunity not to - like his 1989 bankruptcy when he stiffed all of his creditors, or all the YC vendors he didnt pay for the year leading up to the summer of 2008, or his real estate employees who went unpaid for nearly 2 years. And dont forget his partners in the YC deal, Sunrise Ridge or just about any other deal he has ever done with anyone.
Thats where Tim "comes from" - stiff everyone and move on.
So much for every last drop of blood in his body. This guy is not only without ethics, he's bloodless.
I was the resource manager for a timber and logging company, and then for a sawmill. I spent 30 or more years in the woods. A deal was a deal. Your word was your bond. And when it was no longer true, you couldn't buy a stick without an irrevocable letter of credit, cash in the form of a cashiers check, stacks of hundred dollar bills, and all up front before you cut one tree, removed one log. How you stayed out of financial or legal problems was not to deal with people who you HAD to have under contract, and then half the time they took you anyway. I had a list of people whose logs or timber I would never buy, people who I would not deal with no matter what. You have to deal with the people who willingly pay their bills, live up to deals made. You might have to change something along the way to meet a need, address a deficiency, but you did it up front, and with a promise of recognition of your cost down the road. Sometimes that hurts. Nobody said it was easy, a game for the weak, the lacking in spirit or gumption. The Blixeths of the world will get taken down sooner or later. Maybe now is the time.
Blixeth was the guy who people in Roseburg long ago told me read an obituary in the newspaper, ran to the widow, expressing great grief with and for her, and, by the way, told her your late husband and I had a handshake deal for me to buy his timber for this amount of money if ever you were to die. He wanted to take good care of you. Just sign right here.
His whole story, for the last three or four decades, was not to pay his bills, to gain advantage any way possible, and then not pay. Skeleton companies you could sue and get a judgement against, but they did not have any assets, any money. That was all gone to some other entity, hidden in other states, under other corporate names. Flim Flam Man. Legerdemain. Sleight of hand and signing pen. And if you wanted to challenge him, it was lawyer up for the long haul. No little guy had the dough to take him on. Predatory lawsuits were the ploy. And he is not through no matter what the judge says or sets down as case law. His whole being is about compliant lawyers and endless court appearances, filings, whatever it takes. Montana will find out. Too late. He is off to Idaho and Nevada where is money is now. No track record there, yet. PT Barnum's claim about a sucker born every minute or whatever it was. TB will find him or her.
The Judge better wake up and realized SB and CS conned his court room and Edra would do anything to keep the club and PC. She lost. Get over it people. If the judge rules againnst TB then the Judge has closed his eyes to justice and how America was made. The lawyers are too greedy to keep this going, so at the end of the day to all of you moaning non accomplished individuals, get a life. At least TB built something for montana, provided jobs and anyone wo said people did not make money along the way are just plain lying. thank goodness for court of appeals as this needs to go to a higher court and not cowboy court where you can buy a decission with the weight of CS behind it.
Jealous?...hardly...schadenfreude yes...watching a career schiester get his come-uppance is a spectator sport..watching him dance and wriggle has taken a while but he knew it was coming..hence his proactive defence and legal smokescreen.
Dance Timmy, dance.
We would be here all day.
“What was your intention in terms of repaying the Credit Suisse loan?” Blixseth’s lawyer, Michael Flynn, asked the former timber baron on the witness stand today.
“The intent was to pay every penny back with every last drop of blood in my body,” Blixseth replied. “Where I come from, a deal is a deal, and if we signed up, we pay it back.”
This should come with an * saying 'unless I can divorce that debt and head for the hills'.
That's more than you can say for his accountant....
I lost my job a while back. Same deal. Same damned personality and business lack of any ethics. The man I worked for contracted farm labor for this guy who once had been nailed for commodity labeling fraud. Sold something as one grade that was not of that grade, but was deigned so by the fraudulent label which was found out in testing. Paid big fines. And there were other deals after that. So this guy got into my boss for some money, and was slow in paying, and I told my boss that he had to pull his people or the guy would string him along until he was broke. So my boss did. The guy took a while but paid, and then wanted workers again. I asked my boss to not do that. This guy is setting you up. He will smile talking to you, but inside he wants revenge for your pulling your people over no pay. I was told to mind my own business. The inevitable happened, and my boss pulled his people again. He found out a few days later that the guy now had his people on his payroll. Two weeks later, his workers came to him to help them get thier paychecks which were not forthcoming. He told them to go ask their employer for their money. They were no longer my bosses employees, and he could do nothing for them or was inclined to answer to their loyalty, either. So now my boss is broke, no credit line available, no way to pay me, IRS trying to collect some owed money, and I am supposed to help him out a day here and there for no pay because there will be a crop to pay the bills this summer. I told him it was none of my doing, and none of my business, so nope, I will not work for nothing because you went against empirical knowledge and got your ass hung out to dry. I warned you and you told me to go to hell. It's your turn to be in hell, not mine. I didn't have thing to do with it. My end of this business is the only thing that makes money, and you have now ruined that. To his defense, he did sue and get a judgement. Big Whoop. That was a month ago, the other guy is still in business, people still work there, and there has been no money forthcoming with a six figure judgement. And, another vineyard has yet to pay in full for grape picking last fall, for a high five figure number. Due diligence. Nobody does due diligence. The issue is that you have to look at criminal records, present and past lawsuits, and do your due diligence. Blixeth left a long trail of broken deals and bailouts, bankos, and all the signs of a loose and undisciplined business mode. The people he has hosed, and hopes to hose, could have it coming if for only not doing their due diligence. Is there a chance some of this is like kinds playing the same games with players of the same veracity? Just deserts? Makes no nevermind to me. But if you do business with the guy you are playing in a game where the rules change, and you might not be in on the secret. His money is his, and yours might as well be if he has his way. You are not getting any of his, as that is not the game. His rules. Your money is for him to get.
The only money of mine that Blixeth ever will get is whatever he owes Warren Miller, if any. I saved money, mowed lawns, returned pop bottles, had a paper route, and my big spending each fall was to see the Warren Miller Ski Movies in some musty building on a college campus close to home. That was absolutely the best deal of the year. An annual high point. Much, much more entertaining to this kid, sixty years ago, than any Disney movie. I learned how to say lots of names for French, Swiss, Austrian ski areas and mountains. Danger, humor, fun, travelogue, the whole salami. I loved Miller and hope Blixeth didn't take his pants down too far. What a joy he brought to this kid's pre-teen life. And, I might have been the only grade school kid there each year. I hope my ticket money did Miller well. He earned it.
Now, I would appreciate Shark Bait coming clean with your intentions: What is a solution you propose? Wether you are a B shareholder or not, I believe the B shareholders should be awarded the Family compoud to offset the claim deservedd by the B shareholders and Byrne must give you 40 memberships to this land as a sig of good faith and peace! Fair? Lets quit point fingers and use this site to help everyone in the settlement!
What are the odds of failing to make a settlement?
1) Intracorp Capital: So who are they, well very famous people who sold out of Interwest and know theski business! How oddd is that! Joe Houssain is aparently in talks with Sam Byrne as we speak. Looks like Sam Byrne istrying to get out of the mess given the pending Fraud charges recently filed by Western Capital.
2) Ron Burkle hs also been sucked into being a possible suitor as well. Its just amazing How Byrne played this game.
Now another interestinn point is that Sharkbait is involved with sales and apparently another lawsuit. Rumor has it Greg Lemond was seekinng a possible filing himself personally for financial reasons? Where did the money all go? Yo, sharkbait, how are the sales at the club? Radiant Heater problems gave you away? ghost writing for someone are you?
Listen, everyone should go read the entire filing made by Same Byrne. He stated to Edra he could achieve 600m in income to her over 5 years. No wonder the woman feel for Sam Byrne. He knew how weak she was an induced her to his web of 'Possible and yet to be Proven' fraud. He is innocent until proven guilty but its not looking good. Seems like Sam should gt another great lawyer on this.
Well people, the game now begins to get interesting. All along people thought conspiracy but today you see truth unfolding from over a year ago of the very comments made about these events.
All parties are innocent until proven guity but suggest people investiate the factSam Byrne is trying to off load the YC deal for a profit quickly!
""Tim Blixseth has long asserted that the club would have survived -- and been able to repay the massive debts that accumulated under his watch -- if not for Byrne. On Wednesday, Blixseth said the evidence increasingly points to a bankruptcy conspiracy.
"I am accusing Sam Byrne, CrossHarbor and affiliates and unnamed others of bankruptcy fraud in the Yellowstone Club bankruptcy," he said in an e-mailed statement. "They purposely deceived and misled the court."
So my fellow bloggers, is this the truth fnally coming out of the closet. Edra should turn evidence against Cross Harbor if she is smart and at least save face with those she harmed which were friends and family members. EDRA, time to come clean and since it appears you got sucked into a scheme, its time to grow up and face the music. Maybe go to church with your friend? Confess your sins. You will sleep much better.
Did ya ever grow up with a kid who never did anything that he was responsible for? It was never his fault. Even his relatives said you were just being hard on the boy, but it wasn't really his fault. He never does anything bad. These things just seem to haunt him. People just won't leave him alone. Poor boy. sob..choke....sob...
You seem to loose th plot. Answer the question. Why is Sam Byrne not filing a lawsuit for defamation? Tim Blixseth, in an open comment to the associated press accuses him of FRAUD. Now if its not True, clearly Sam Byrne should launch a lawsuit to protect the GREAT NAME of Cross Harbor correct? Why is Sam Byrne trying to sell YC to Intracorp Capital? Why or Why? Why is Edra Blixseth not speaking the truth when in fact Sam through her under the bus because of her ignorance? How doesCross Harbor and the YCLT say the club was in a horrible condition, yet Sam Byrne promises to make Edra 600,000,000 in 5 years? What all o you fail to see is SAM Byrne has a lot to answer for and if he does not protect his name very soon then we must assume he was wrong, however, we all my believe the courts will rule. He is innocent until proven wrong. Therefore, Sam Byrne, how d you respond to the claims? Fraud or no Fraud?
My friend in Roseburg did note that TB can write a check if you step behind his desk with the full intent to break his arms, the one he just seconds before said would never write a check to the person who was in front of the desk seconds before. TB has been intimidated by outrage from a fit and large person. I would guess that is the reason, now, for all the armed bodyguards he has chosen to surround himself with for so long. Memories of his past in Roseburg, hustling widow women and gypo loggers out of their wealth. The Artful Dodger. Popping up and down from his hidey holes of sham corporations and defunct companies, like a weasel in a prairie dog farm. If SB gets him before a Federal judge might, who cares? Justice can appear in many disguises. So we wait. I really do care that ratholing of wealth ill gotten be found out and the bankruptcy judge takes it all to pay the deserving. It took two to tango, and both danced willingly. Credit Suisse and TB should be made to correct the whole of YC finances with all their wealth, to make the members whole, and then be banished to do their harm anywhere else but in Montana, with "BUYER BEWARE" tattooed on their foreheads..in whatever way a judge might do that....
How exactly does Sam sell the YC? Who would buy an asset in such disarray, from a guy with a pending fraud lawsuit? With all the banks getting hammered for "predatory loans" How could Judge K rule that CS was predatory, but SB knowingly driving Edra to BK so he could get the lot for $35m was not?
This kitty smells a reversal.
If SB is such a benefactor of the the YC, and loved by all in the valley, why not fight this fraud charge? Where is the counter suit?
This is the same Western capital who already gained 2 yellowstone club homes, and a condo out of Edra/Crocker loan How much are those assets worth? at min $6.5 Mil? Not bad to get .50 cents on the $ in BK(ask CS what they got)for making a bad business decission. Is this just corporate greed? wonder if TB has been feeding them with stories and promises?
Tim blowing the loan money on Yellowstone Club World was Tim's misadventure. That, and diverting a large portion of money to himself. That is the reason Tim is getting his PR company to make press releases that all too readily get picked up as 'news' when they are blatant Blixseth smokescreen and PR.
If nothing else Blockhead, you are indeed loyal to your owner.
The problem here is that SB/Crossharbor carefully orchastrated a way to buy the club and well below firesale prices, by BK Edra. The emails and court docs show that he chose to side with her in the summer of 2008, offerring to back her in the fight with Tim. He knew damn well that Edra was broke, and still loaned her the $35m against PC. His emails actually talk about forcing her and the club in BK.
Had Edra not fought Tim on the Spring '08 sale plans, They would have gotten $450m for the club, and then people would have been paid back. SB however used their situation to maipulate Edra into a position where she was fina ncially in a corner, by advising her to exchange the club and its debt, for the other YCW assets. The seccond she did that, Tim was in the clear. Not his problem anymore.
If I take a HELOC out and buy a car, and my wife agrees to take the house and debt in exchange for the car in the divorce, should I have to give the car back if she goes BK?
Sam played Edra, Played the members, and perpetrated fraud. Tim saw it. Now everyone else is starting to see it. This is why Sam can't sell, and why he's been silent on the fraud charges.
Great read on the situation. Sam Byrne saw a weakness in the divorce and that was EDRA. He couldn't snowball Tim so he went after the 'Easy Prey' Sam Byrne, as he wrote in he email ' I have a plan and its EVIL! Who would of thought those emails would come back and haunt him with this Fraud Charge no lingering over his head! He is innocent until proven guilty so lets be careful not to throw too much mud on this predatory lender! He gets his day in court to defend this 35m loan and his BK plan to not only get the club but throw Edra out of Porcupine Creek and leave her homeless and broke. If I was her, (Thank god I am not) I would be looking at ways with the friends she messed about in 'Turning Evidence' Against Sam Byrne for misleading her to thinking she would make 600 million over 5 years! What a crock of crap Sam Byrne et al sold to her! He did not throw her under the bus, he took a mad truck and used her greed to put her under the ground! Sam, if the FRAUD charges are not true, where is your legal teams response to the charges? Where is the PR accusing Tim of 'Slander, Defamation'? The simple example of the Home Equity Line of Credit mentioned above makes sense. Lets no forget Tim offered to buy Edra out and she said NO WAY IN HELL. We now understand why. She thought she was going to get 600 million in 5 years from Sam Byrne. Of course she turned down Tim Blixseth! Sam was counting on that and given that Sam was privy to Tim wanting to buy her out, he insured Edra could not say no to Tim or to Sam. Now everyone one wants to have Tim pay for the mistakes of his ex-wife and Sam Byrne? Tim has lost a fortune thanks to CS, Sam Byrne and Edra. Its time for the truth to come out and it appears the surface is cracked wide open. Unless Sam comes out with a clear statement denying the Fraud, we can only assume there is some truth on the matter right? Now, I doubt very much Edra is reading emails as her lap top was auctioned off and she is living at a friends house in Palm Springs having been removed from Porcupine Creek. I think she has interent thanks to a friend in need but would imagine there is a high degree of guilt and remorse for her actions. If she does the right thing and wants the respect of those who helped her in need, those she promised to make things right with being the banks, friends, creditors and others, the only thing she can do now is given evidence against Sam Byrne! Edra may be found guilty of lying under oath but at least if she does the right thing her friends will have more respect for her now that the truth is coming out. Edra Blixseth, get out of the chair, pick yourself up and do the right thing. You not only would have a suit against Sam Byrne for inducement and misleading financial documentation but also it opens you up to recovering damages for all creditors. Its a hard path to follow but maybe in the end its the best path! Sam Byrne must be concerned on the information you have that was somehow hidden during the 2004 Exam, now its time to unload it and put it to good use. What has he done for you. Your answers do not lay in the fact of pulling Tim down with you, rather it lays in pulling down the very man who took it all away from you. Sam took it all away, Tim merely gave you what you asked for and that was YC, PC,Family Compound, France Castle, your apartment in Seattle, Mexico house, cars and jewelry. Sam today took the club, is on the verge of taking Family Compound, controls the creditor bid on PC, you lost the plans, cars, jewlery, mexico and seattle and live in a friends house! Tim did not do this to you Edra! You borrowed a lot of money from banks unsecured to maintain your life style and image without Tim knowing. That is your fault. You took the deal from Tim when he offered you 50m cash and you could have kept PC, the CARS, THe planes, the mexico house etc. You screwed up and Sam helped push you over the edge promising you 600 million over 5 years! Enough said. For those who want to continue to attack TIM, one piece of advise, GOOD LUCK to all of you. He is not going anywhere in this situation but up and the momentum has shifted. Get used it. He said all along when no one was listening that EDRA, SAM and even CS were behind what happened at YC. Its not the case as we can see by all the new evidence.