MGG Investment Group

The court-appointed trustee in the nearly two-year-old Zayat Stables involuntary bankruptcy case is proposing a settlement in which Ahmed Zayat and his family members would pay $5 million to be allocated between MGG Investment Group and the trustee. Of that amount, only $30,000 is earmarked to eventually go to "unsecured creditors," some of whom are Thoroughbred industry participants owed money by Zayat Stables and are much further down the legal pecking order for otherwise getting repaid. MGG will also get a disbursement from the funds in the bankruptcy trustee's account...

The law firm representing Ahmed Zayat in his $19-million bankruptcy pleading asked a federal judge Monday for permission to walk away from the case based on Zayat's alleged non-payment of $368,273 to the firm in outstanding legal fees. "The representation of the Debtor has consumed an extremely significant amount of the available resources of our firm," wrote attorney Jay Lubetkin of Rabinowitz, Lubetkin & Tully, LLC, in a July 26 "motion to withdraw" filed in United States Bankruptcy Court (District of New Jersey). "The Debtor has been consistently advised that...

The federal judge overseeing Ahmed Zayat's Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition has ordered that the trustee in the case will now have through Apr. 30 to pore over financial documentation to make sure the allegedly insolvent owner and breeder of Triple Crown champ American Pharoah isn't hiding assets. In a court order dated Mar. 31 that was filed Apr. 2 in United States Bankruptcy Court (District of New Jersey), Judge Vincent Papalia wrote that "the Trustee's time to file a complaint objecting to the Debtor's discharge is further extended..." In the...

On Mar. 16, Ahmed Zayat asked a federal judge not to grant the trustee in his bankruptcy case extra time that had been requested to scrutinize Zayat's finances so the trustee could make sure the owner and breeder of Triple Crown champ American Pharoah was telling the truth about not being able pay $19 million in debts because he allegedly only had $314.22 to his name. Now, one week later, MGG Investment Group, LP, the lender who is separately suing Zayat and his family members for allegedly obtaining a $24...

MGG Investment Group, LP, is already nearly a year into a civil lawsuit initiated to try and recoup $24 million in loan defaults by Ahmed Zayat and his family-owned bloodstock and racing operation. Now the New York-based lender is going after the insolvent Triple Crown-winning owner and breeder in a different court by trying to get a federal bankruptcy judge to rule that some of Zayat's debts shouldn't be legally forgiven under the Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection he is seeking because those loans were the product of years of systematic...

Attorneys representing MGG Investment Group, LP, which is the plaintiff in a $24.5 million Kentucky civil lawsuit alleging fraud and loan defaults against Ahmed Zayat and his family's Zayat Stables, LLC, disclosed in a legal document filed Sept. 18 that the court-appointed receiver in that case intends to hold a November auction to sell off horses that are being held as collateral against the unpaid debts. News about this anticipated November auction was made public in the form of a letter dated Friday and filed in United States Bankruptcy Court,...

Judge Kim Bunnell ruled to dismiss the claims brought by the MGG Investment Group against Yeomanstown Stud in which they sought the return of the stallion El Kabeir in Fayette County (Ky.) Circuit Court Friday morning. Yeomanstown purchased the stallion from Ahmed Zayat's Zayat Stables Sept. 20, 2017, for $500,000. MGG was attempting to acquire the horse as part of its suits seeking the return of horses and breeding shares sold by the Zayats which had been pledged as collateral for $30 million in loans. Yeomanstown had moved to discuss...

After filing a civil complaint against numerous individuals and entities that had purchased horses or other assets from Ahmed Zayat, MGG Investments has given up the portion of its complaint that aims to collect money from Thomas Clark Bloodstock. Clark's attorney Tom Miller received a notice Tuesday from lawyers representing MGG notifying him that the complaint against Clark had been voluntarily dismissed. Last week, MGG amended its civil complaint against Zayat to include several breeding farms and individuals, including Coolmore Stud, Hill 'n' Dale and LNJ Foxwoods. MGG has sued...

When the MGG Investment Group filed a complaint in Fayette Circuit Court on Tuesday seeking the return of horses previously owned by Zayat Stables which had been sold privately and at public auction, it raised the question: is it the responsibility of a buyer at auction or a sales company to run a search prior to the transaction to determine if the horse is being sold free of liens and encumbrances? And are private buyers of horses required to do so? In short: might the buyers of those horses at...

The New York lending firm that last month initiated a $23-million lawsuit against Ahmed Zayat and his financially troubled Zayat Stables, LLC, broadly amended its civil complaint in a Kentucky court earlier this week (click here). Zayat Stables issued the following statement Thursday regarding the amended complaint: "We are disappointed but not surprised at MGG and Kevin Griffin's aggressive attack on the horse industry. Zayat Stables said from the beginning that it wanted to liquidate certain assets to generate enough proceeds to pay off all of its creditors. Motivated purely...

The New York lending firm that last month initiated a $23-million lawsuit against Ahmed Zayat and his financially troubled Zayat Stables, LLC, has broadly amended its civil complaint in a Kentucky court. As of Tuesday, the suit now additionally targets 10 prominent bloodstock individuals and entities that the plaintiff alleges played a role in the "fraudulent scheme" orchestrated by Zayat family members "to sell at a steep discount several millions of dollars of Zayat Stables' assets" that had been pledged as collateral for $30 million in loans. The wide-ranging updated...

Jay Ingle, an attorney with the Lexington, Kentucky-based law firm Jackson Kelly PLLC, released a statement on behalf of owner Ahmed Zayat Saturday morning addressing the complaint filed by trainer Mike Maker in Jefferson County Court this past Thursday seeking better than $120,000 in alleged unpaid training bills. "This lawsuit from Mike Maker is absurd," the statement read. "Ahmed Zayat made all payments required under his prior settlement with Mr. Maker until MGG seized control of Zayat Stables' bank account last month. It is outrageous for Mr. Maker to cry...