Sunday, November 13, 2011

Retail Brokers Inc. principals face lawsuits related to investments - The Business Review (Albany):

idellecromwell1991.blogspot.com
million in loans from an Oklahoma bank tothe pair’sx real estate partnerships. The two men also are defendants in three investor lawsuits claiming they mismanaged investments in their retail realestate endeavors. The developers are tryinf to settle the investor according to several attorneys familiar with the In 2008, the pair settled a similar investor suit out of court. Barness and principals of Scottsdale-based , own shopping centerds in Phoenix, Tempe, Gilbert and They operate each center under a separatdbusiness partnership. The pair also are involved in a numbertof Phoenix-area charitable organizations.
Barness, for example, is active with locaol Jewish community causes and helpeed raise money forArizona Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential bid. Papakyriakoh also goes by the nameAlex Papas. The filedx its suits in late January in Maricopaz CountySuperior Court, claiming the developers failed to pay back thre e loans totaling $9.5 according to court documents. Mike Manning, Phoenix managing partner of , the law firm representing the declined to comment on thependinbg matters. “We cannot commenty on the record,” Manning RBI and Barness’ charitable foundatiojn did not respond to requestsfor comment.
No officialo response to the lawsuit was filed by the defendantzs bypress time. The investor lawsuits were filed in Maricopz County Superior Court agains Barnessand Papakyriakou’s real estate businesses. Thos e three investor claims may be consolidated under Maricopa Superio Court Judge John Buttrick andsettled together, according to legakl sources who would not go on the Barness and Papakyriakou’s attorney, Jeffrey said he expects the investor lawsuits to be resolved He said the resolutions would be via mutual but declined to say whether they woulrd involve out-of-court settlements.
Leonard also would not comment about the resolution or settlement of the 2008investodr lawsuit. Barness and Papakyriakou did not comment for this Other lawyers familiar with the investor suits said a settlement is being Robert Mitchell, the investor/plaintiff’s attorney in the 2008 claim againsy Barness and Papakyriakou, said he could not “All I can tell you is that the case was he said. The 2008 case claimecd Barness and Papakyriakou deceived investorswith self-dealsw and misrepresented sales and financial proceeds.
One of the 2009 in-vestor suitsx was filed by Phoenixcardiologisty Na-than Laufer and four other investors who say Barness and Papakyriakou raisef as much as $400 million in equity investments and loans for theird real estate and shopping centeer businesses. They claim the defendantds “wrongfully diverted nearly $50 million to according to court documents. The Laufer suit also contend s Barness and Papakyriakou improperly used investmen money in some deals between businessz entitiesthey owned, and that the salees benefited the defendants but not the The suit claims fraud, breachh of contract and failure to meet fiduciary responsibilities.
Plaintiffs in the Laufetr case say theyinvested $1.3 million in Barness-Papakyriakou real estate endeavors. Attorneys representing the plaintiffzs in the Laufer case wouldnot comment. A secondr investor suit, filed by the Eugene and Lenore SchupakFamily Trust, claims the trust invested $10.4 million in Barness- and Papakyriakou-owned shoppinv centers in Arizona and real estate The same suit contends another family entity, Schupaki Partners I, invested $953,000 in Castlde Yuma Dev Partners, an investment entity createed by the defendants.

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