Eva Longoria faces more challenges with her Las Vegas restaurant and nightclub, with a third investor now agitating against the business in its bankruptcy case.
Longoria and other investors own Beso restaurant and Eve nightclub at Crystals, the shopping mall at the CityCenter casino-resort complex on the Las Vegas Strip.
The business, Beso LLC, opened in December 2009 and filed for Chapter 11 reorganization on Jan. 6 after running up $5.68 million in debt against assets of $2.5 million.
Crystals has filed a claim in the bankruptcy case against Beso for $2.276 million for unpaid rent and construction costs. The Nevada Department of Taxation has filed a claim of about $539,000 for taxes due prior to the bankruptcy.
Investors and former managers Ronen and Mali Nachum are pursuing a claim of $280,000 they claim to be owed for a loan they provided the business. Beso has contested their claim.
The latest investor to participate in the bankruptcy against Beso is Anthony Vicidomine. He had sued Beso last year, charging it failed to pay him for a portion of his membership interest he was selling back to the company.
Vicidomine won a $634,000 judgment against Beso in June 2010, plus interest, and at the time of the bankruptcy he was owed more than $651,000.
The day before the bankruptcy, an attorney for Vicidomine had threatened to attach Beso’s bank account unless he was paid $50,000 immediately, court records show.
On Monday, an attorney for Vicidomine filed an objection to Beso’s request for an extension of the 120-day period to exclusively file a reorganization plan – meaning the court may have to choose between competing plans that would treat creditors differently.
In its motion for an extension of time, attorneys for Beso said the issues in the bankruptcy case are "not easily resolvable" including attempts to negotiate lease issues with Crystals.
"The debtor filed its petition to avoid the termination of this lease and has been in active communication with Crystals in an attempt to resolve this issue to avoid disagreeable outcomes for creditors," Beso’s filing said.
But attorneys with the Las Vegas law firm Gordon Silver, representing Vicidomine, noted the deadline for Beso to exclusively file a plan was May 6 and they opposed further extending it to Sept. 2.
Denying the motion is in the best interests of the Beso bankruptcy estate and creditors "as it will permit Vicidomine, among other potential creditors and/or parties-in-interest, to file a plan of reorganization, thereby moving the bankruptcy case swiftly towards a successful reorganization," his attorneys wrote in their filing.
"Vicidomine, a (2 percent owner of Beso) and one of its largest creditors, is currently formulating a plan of reorganization that he anticipates filing upon the continued expiration of the exclusivity period," their filing said.
"There is absolutely no evidence that further negotiations will culminate in a plan of reorganization or even that there has been progress in the lease negotiations such that a plan of reorganization is imminent. Further, there is no evidence – or even unsupported assertions – as to what a proposed plan may contemplate, and therefore, debtor has certainly not demonstrated – or even asserted – that any plan has a probable chance of being confirmed," the filing said.
Attorneys for Beso have not yet answered these assertions.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mike Nakagawa has separately approved a plan by Beso in which contractors that participated in construction of the business be paid $393,613 held in Beso’s construction account. They’ll also receive another $368,457 held by Crystals as tenant improvement funds.
In agreeing to accept less than the $1.3 claimed, the contractors will be released by Beso from construction defect claims.
Also, Beso filed court papers showing the restaurant and club remained busy in March, generating some $857,000 in revenue and a $17,000 profit from operations.