Judge considering Landry’s involvement with Eva Longoria’s Beso restaurant

Bankruptcy Judge Mike Nakagawa didn’t immediately rule today on a request by Eva Longoria’s Beso restaurant in Las Vegas that Landry’s Restaurants Inc. of Houston be allowed to run the business and advance funds to keep it afloat until it’s sold.

In a bankruptcy case noted for acrimony and the pitting of disgruntled Beso investors against Longoria and her team, attorneys for Landry’s and Beso said during a hearing today that objections to their plan should be overruled in part because a big player in the case – Beso’s landlord – has signed off on the proposal.

The landlord is Crystals, the high-end shopping mall on the Las Vegas Strip. It’s part of MGM Resorts International’s CityCenter resort complex.

An attorney for Crystals, which is owed some $3.375 million in rent, told the judge today the shopping mall is supportive of the plan for Landry’s to advance some $300,000 to Beso to cover operating losses until the business is sold.

Landry’s hopes to buy the high-profile business for $1 million under an arrangement in which Longoria would maintain an ownership interest in Beso.

Attorneys for disgruntled investors reiterated during today’s hearing their charges that the Landry’s deal is a questionable insider arrangement between Longoria and Landry’s and they asked Nakagawa to reject it and potentially appoint a trustee or examiner to run Beso and study its finances.

Claims that Beso was on the verge of shutting down because it was running out of cash – before Landry’s stepped in -- are a "fabricated emergency," charged Las Vegas attorney Gregory Garman.

He represents investor Anthony Vicidomine, who wants to team up with nightclub operator Angel Management Group of Las Vegas to take over Beso.

It was noted during the hearing that none of the investor parties – not Beso, not Longoria, not Vicidomine, not disgruntled investors Mali Nachum and her husband Ronen Nachum – had filed a plan of reorganization for the business.

It was also noted that any of the investors can try to outbid Landry’s during a sales hearing that has yet to be scheduled.

And while attorneys for the Nachums and Vicidomine said a capital call among investors could be made to keep the business running, Nakagawa noted he had no evidence to that affect in the form of declarations from these investors.

"I guess this is either a put up or shut up proposal," the judge said. "I haven’t seen any declarations or the amounts the parties are willing to put up. But I understand it’s their intent."

Which leaves Landry’s the only party to actually put a defined amount of cash on the table.

The judge noted the acrimony in the case – including a threat by an unnamed investor to sue Landry’s for its involvement in the case.

But Nakagawa said it didn’t appear that with the Landry’s management contract at issue, any of the investor parties were trying to put themselves ahead of the others.

"It appears at this point that Landry’s is the only independent third party – except for the future relationship with Ms. Longoria," the judge said.