Bank of America, N.A. ex rel. Estate of Veluchamy v. Veluchamy

551 B.R. 364, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109322
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedAugust 18, 2015
DocketCivil Action No. 15 CV 2075; Bankruptcy Case No. 11-33413; Adversary Case No. 12-1715
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 551 B.R. 364 (Bank of America, N.A. ex rel. Estate of Veluchamy v. Veluchamy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bank of America, N.A. ex rel. Estate of Veluchamy v. Veluchamy, 551 B.R. 364, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109322 (N.D. Ill. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

CHARLES R. NORGLE, United States District Court Judge

This matter comes before the Court to adopt the bankruptcy court’s Corrected Amended Memorandum of Decision on the Entry of Final Judgment and Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, (the “Proposed Findings”), which were recommended by Judge Wedoff on December 18, 2014. See In re Veluchamy, 524 B.R. 277, Bankr.N.D.Ill.2014. After Judge Wedoff recommended the Proposed Findings, Bank of America, N.A., in its capacity as estate representative (the “Estate” or “Bank of America”); Pethinaidu (“Mr.Ve-luchamy”) and Parameswari Veluchamy (“Mrs.Veluchamy”) (collectively, the “senior Veluchamys”); the senior Veluchamys’ children, Anu Veluchamy (“Anu”) and Arun Veluchamy (“Aran”); and Aran’s wife, Sonia Veluchamy (“Sonia”) all raised or responded to various objections to the Proposed Findings. As explained in further detail below, the parties’ objections are overruled and the Court adopts the entirety of the relevant parts of Judge Wedoff s Proposed Findings as the final judgment of the Court.

I. BACKGROUND

Mr. Veluchamy is an accomplished businessman who presided over a corporate conglomerate that — at its height — included dozens of businesses located in both Illinois and India. Mr. Veluchamy turned his focus toward bank ownership, purchasing Security Bank in 1995, then Mutual Bank in 1998 (he later merged Security Bank into Mutual Bank). Mutual Bank’s financial condition began to deteriorate, and in 2005, became the subject of a joint investigation between the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) and the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (“IDFPR”). In an attempt to rescue the bank from insolvency, the senior Veluchamys personally guaranteed two loan's from LaSalle Bank (now Bank of America) totaling $40 million. Subsequently, they defaulted on these loans in 2008, and the FDIC subsequently found Mutual Bank undercapitalized. When the senior Veluchamys could not recapitalize the bank, IDFPR closed the bank in July 2009, See generally Veluchamy v. FDIC, 706 F.3d 810, 812-14 (7th Cir.2013).

On August 19, 2009, Bank of America filed actions to collect on the defaulted loan amounts from the senior Veluchamys. On December 30, 2010, Bank of America obtained judgments totaling $43 million. See Bank of Am., N.A. v. First Mut. Bancorp et al., Case No.2009-CV-5108; Bank of Am., N.A. v. Pethinaidu Veluchamy et al., Case No.2009-CV-5109. After obtaining the judgments, the bank moved to compel the return of assets that the Velu-chamys had fraudulently transferred to friends and family. Just before that motion was set for hearing, the senior Velu-chamys petitioned for bankruptcy on August 16, 2011. While their net assets were, at their height, in excess of $500 million, the senior Veluchamys reported a negative net worth of $65 million in their petition. After Bank of America, in its capacity as Estate Representative, filed an adversary action against the Veluchamys, and a hearing was held, the bankruptcy court found (and proposed findings) that [368]*368the senior Veluchamys had fraudulently transferred $57,857,236 in cash and property to Arun and Anu, and had hid another $5.5 million, plus stock and jewelry, from their creditors. See Veluchamy, 524 B.R. at 327. The Estate, the senior Velucha-mys, and Arun and Anu have all filed objections. As Judge Wedoff has explained the full measure of the sordid facts surrounding this case in great detail, the Court will recite only the facts that are applicable to the pending objections.

The first objection is brought by the Estate against Sonia, and challenges the proposed finding that Sonia was not the subsequent transferee of $500,000.00 of putative debtor assets. The second objection is brought by the senior Veluchamys against the Estate, and challenges the proposed findings that (1) Mr. Veluchamy remains in control of one of his Indian corporations, Jayavelu Spinning Mill (“JSM”) and consequently has the capacity to effect the turnover of $5.5 million back to the Estate and (2) the senior Veluchamys fraudulently transferred twenty-four pieces of jewelry. The third objection is brought by Arun and Anu against the Estate, and challenges the finding that they conspired with their parents and each other to defraud the senior Veluchamys’ creditors and the finding that they aided .and abetted the senior Veluchamys in perpetuating their fraudulent scheme.

A. Objection One: the Estate Against Sonia Veluchamy

Starting on September 1, 2009, and continuing through October 20, 2010, the senior Veluchamys wired $18,605,101.00 to Anu and Arun. In an effort to conceal the transfers from their creditors, the senior Veluchamys wired the money to their Indian bank accounts, and then transferred the money to their children’s Indian bank accounts, who subsequently wired the money back into their (i.e. Anu’s and Aran’s) American bank accounts. In July 2010, Anu subsequently transferred $500,000.00 of her parents’ money to Oakbrook Financial, Inc. (“OBF”), an entity that the Velu-chamys formed to provide funding to their various enterprises. In her testimony, Anu characterized the transfer as a loan to Sonia so that she (Sonia) could receive 50,000 shares in OBF. Sonia stated that she wanted to purchase the funds, but lacked the necessary capital to make the investment. While OBF did in fact issue the shares to Sonia, her husband, Arun repaid the $500,000.00 loan. OBF used Anu’s funds transfer to pay off debts owed by another Veluchamy company, Creative Automation, to MB Financial Bank. At no time did Sonia receive any money from the senior Veluchamys, Anu, or Aran, and she held the 50,000 shares in OBF until they became worthless when OBF ceased operations.

B. Objection Two: The Senior Velu-chamys Against The Estate

1. The cash transfer to JSM

Mr. Veluchamy started JSM in 1994 and he, along with his wife, owned 99.99% of the company. According to the Indian Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ (“MCA”) Form 20B1 that was filed by JSM in 2010, [369]*369the senior Veluchamys transferred 7,999,-998 shares in JSM (out of a total of ten million shares outstanding) to Anu and Aran on October 12, 2009. ■ Approximately one month later, on November 19, 2009, Anu and Arun became directors of JSM. No consideration was paid for the stock transfer.

In July 2010, Mr. Veluchamy transferred $5.5 million to JSM’s bank account at Cañara Bank in India. Although Mr. Veluchamy first explained that he transferred the funds to pay down JSM’s debt, no documentation of the debt, payment demands, or actual debt payments were introduced to corroborate his testimony. Next, Mr. Veluch'amy produced letters from Cañara bank to the Veluchamys’ accountant, purportedly stating that the cash transfer was an equity contribution to JSM. But again, Mr. Veluchamy did not produce any evidence to corroborate this theory of disposition: there are no records of JSM stock issuance, and JSM’s records do not account for either the inflow or the outflow of the cash. The bankruptcy court found that the senior Veluchamys presented no credible evidence that JSM ever took title to the funds; only that they used the bank account as an offshore container for the money.

Subsequent to this transfer, on December 6, 2010, Anu and Arun transferred their shares back to their parents.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Parameswari Veluchamy v. Bank of America, N.A.
879 F.3d 808 (Seventh Circuit, 2018)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
551 B.R. 364, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109322, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bank-of-america-na-ex-rel-estate-of-veluchamy-v-veluchamy-ilnd-2015.