Leslie Klein

CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, C.D. California
DecidedApril 28, 2025
Docket2:23-bk-10990
StatusUnknown

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Bluebook
Leslie Klein, (Cal. 2025).

Opinion

1 2 FILED & ENTERED 3 APR 28 2025 4 5 CLERK U.S. BANKRUPTCY COURT Central District of California 6 BY s u m l i n DEPUTY CLERK 7 8 UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT 9 CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 LOS ANGELES DIVISION 11 12 In re: Case No.: 2:23-bk-10990-NB 13 Leslie Klein, Chapter: 11 14

MEMORANDUM DECISION GRANTING 15 CHAPTER 11 TRUSTEE’S MOTION FOR ORDER ENFORCING THE AUTOMATIC 16 Debtor(s) STAY AND SANCTIONS, SUBJECT TO 17 FURTHER PROCEEDINGS TO ESTABLISH DOLLAR AMOUNT OF 18 SANCTIONS 19 Hearing: 20 Date: April 8, 2025 Time: 2:00 p.m. 21 Place: Courtroom 1545 255 E. Temple Street 22 Los Angeles, CA 90012 (or via Zoomgov per posted procedures) 23 This Memorandum Decision supplements this Bankruptcy Court’s “Interim Order 24 Granting Motion for Order Enforcing the Automatic Stay and Sanctions Against (A) The 25 Debtor, (B) Daniel Crawford, (C) Crawford Law Group, (D) Leslie Klein & Associates, 26 Inc., and (E) EKLK Foundation, and Related Relief” (dkt. 1026, “Stay Violation Order”). 27 Specifically, this decision elaborates on this Bankruptcy Court’s oral findings of fact and 28 1 conclusions of law set forth on the record at the above-captioned hearing on Trustee’s 2 motion (dkt. 969, the “Stay Violation Motion”) seeking to enforce the automatic stay and 3 an award of sanctions arising from the responding parties’ stay violation. 4 1. BACKGROUND 5 Life Capital Group, LLC ("Life Capital") is a California limited liability corporation 6 that was formed on or about April 8, 2011. Stay Violation Motion (dkt. 969), Ex. B. Life 7 Capital is governed by a limited liability company operating agreement. Id., Ex. C (the 8 "LLC Agreement"). As set forth in the LLC Agreement, Debtor holds a 50% 9 membership interest in Life Capital and Shlomo Rechnitz holds the other 50% 10 membership interest. Id., Ex. C, Schedule A. 11 a. The Life Capital Action 12 On January 23, 2025 Trustee commenced an adversary proceeding in this 13 Bankruptcy Court (Adv. No. 2:25-ap-01020-NB) (the "Life Capital Action") against Life 14 Capital, Mr. Rechnitz, Jonathan Polter (the sole manager of Life Capital) and other 15 parties, seeking to avoid, as a fraudulent and/or preferential transfer, Debtor’s pre- 16 petition release of his rights and entitlements to distributions from the proceeds of life 17 insurance policies governed by the terms and conditions of the LLC Agreement 18 pursuant to a settlement agreement (the “Life Capital Settlement") in which the parties 19 agreed on the terms and conditions concerning the distribution of proceeds from certain 20 life insurance policies. 21 b. The LKA Action 22 On March 6, 2025 - just over one month after Trustee filed the Life Capital Action 23 asserting that this bankruptcy estate has an interest in certain life insurance proceeds - 24 Leslie Klein & Associates, Inc. ("LKA") and EKLK Foundation ("EKLK" or, with LKA, the 25 “Klein Entities”) filed an action in California Superior Court (Case No. 25STCV06300) 26 (the "LKA Action") asserting an interest in those same proceeds. Specifically, the Klein 27 Entities asserted claims against Life Capital, Mr. Polter, and Mr. Rechnitz alleging that 28 Debtor and Mr. Polter agreed that LKA would be designated as a "lender" in the LLC 1 Agreement and that all amounts paid by LKA for life insurance premiums or to maintain 2 life insurance policies made before the formation of Life Capital would be repaid to it 3 from payments made by the respective insurers on the policies before any amounts 4 would be paid to Debtor and Mr. Rechnitz. Stay Violation Motion (dkt. 969), Ex. F at 5 PDF pp. 163:10-21.1 6 c. The EKLK Action 7 Also, on March 6, 2025 - again, just over one month after Trustee filed the Life 8 Capital Action asserting that this bankruptcy estate has an interest in certain life 9 insurance proceeds - EKLK filed an action in California Superior Court (Case No. 10 25STCV06306) (the "EKLK Action" or, with the LKA Action, the “Superior Court 11 Actions”) asserting another interest in those same proceeds. Specifically, EKLK 12 asserted claims against Mr. Rechnitz, among others, alleging that in 2011 EKLK 13 entered into an agreement with Sytamar Foundation ("SYTR"), a charitable foundation, 14 whereby the parties agreed, among other things, that SYTR would assume EKLK’s 15 responsibility for making premium payments for three life insurance policies in which 16 EKLK was the assigned designated beneficiary: (x) the Goodkin Policy (Policy No. 17 UME2041681), (y) the Holtzman Policy (Policy No. 6003033), and (z) the Roth Policy 18 (Policy No. US0023724L) (collectively, the “Policies”), and, in exchange, EKLK and 19 SYTR would split the benefits and proceeds paid by the insurers of those policies. Stay 20 Violation Motion (dkt. 969), Ex. G at PDF p. 174:6-12.2 21

22 1 LKA further alleges that Life Capital has received proceeds from policies and has distributed money from those proceeds without making payments due to it (id., at PDF p. 164:11-13) and has transferred certain beneficial rights 23 and interests in some of the policies to third parties. Id., at PDF p. 164:25-26. As a result of the foregoing, LKA seeks 24 an award of damages, declaratory relief, injunctive relief and/or the imposition of a constructive trust, and avoidance of certain transfers made to the defendants in that action and/or third parties that allegedly were wrongfully distributed 25 in violation of its rights and claims to such funds, rights and/or beneficial interests. Id., at PDF pp. 167:10-11:6. In other words, LKA not only asserts rights that allegedly would be prior to Trustee's claims but seeks a constructive 26 trust and other enforcement of such purported rights. 27 2 EKLK further alleges that it did not receive the required payments under the Policies and that those monies and certain rights and/or beneficial interests in the Policies were wrongfully converted and distributed to other parties. Id. 28 at 174:26-180:19. Accordingly, EKLK seeks an award of damages, declaratory relief, injunctive relief and/or the imposition of a constructive trust, and the avoidance of certain transfers, among other things. Id., at PDF pp. 180:23- 1 2. EVIDENTIARY OBJECTIONS 2 The Klein Entities and Daniel A. Crawford, Esq. (collectively, “Respondents”)3 3 object (dkt. 997 at PDF pp. 10-12) to the admissibility of (x) paragraph 3 of the Lucas 4 Declaration (dkt. 969, PDF p. 22); (y) "Schedule C" of Life Capital’s Operating 5 Agreement (id., Ex. C, Schedule C PDF p. 61); and (z) page 33 of the Life Capital’s 6 Operating Agreement (id., Ex. C, PDF p. 58) on the grounds that the documents lack 7 foundation, are hearsay and/or the declarant has not established that he is a custodian 8 of records. 9 This Bankruptcy Court orally sustained those objections but granted leave for the 10 Trustee's counsel to make an offer of proof at the hearing, to be supplemented with 11 Trustee’s declaration, about whether the Trustee could establish (i) a sufficient factual 12 basis that he is the custodian of records or "another qualified witness" within the 13 meaning of Rule 803(6)(D) (Fed. R. Evid.) and (ii) that the other elements of Rule 14 803(6) are satisfied (and a sufficient foundation for admissibility of the documents), and 15 to follow up with the Trustee's actual written declaration verifying the foregoing things. 16 See Dkt. 1026, p. 2:17-24. See also, e.g., United States v. Childs, 5 F.3d 1328, 1334 17 (9th Cir. 1993) ("The phrase ‘other qualified witness’ [in FRE 803(6)] is broadly 18 interpreted to require only that the witness understand the record-keeping system.") 19 (citation omitted, emphasis added); see also Stay Violation Order (dkt. 1026).

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Leslie Klein, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/leslie-klein-cacb-2025.