Moshe Yanai, Rachel Yanai, and Michal International Investment LLC v. Zack Keinan, Individually and as General Partner of Scintilla Holdings, Ltd.; Scintilla Holdings, Ltd., as General Partner of Scintilla Fund, L.P.; And Boaz Toshav

CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedApril 8, 2025
Docket2584CV00565-BLS2
StatusPublished

This text of Moshe Yanai, Rachel Yanai, and Michal International Investment LLC v. Zack Keinan, Individually and as General Partner of Scintilla Holdings, Ltd.; Scintilla Holdings, Ltd., as General Partner of Scintilla Fund, L.P.; And Boaz Toshav (Moshe Yanai, Rachel Yanai, and Michal International Investment LLC v. Zack Keinan, Individually and as General Partner of Scintilla Holdings, Ltd.; Scintilla Holdings, Ltd., as General Partner of Scintilla Fund, L.P.; And Boaz Toshav) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moshe Yanai, Rachel Yanai, and Michal International Investment LLC v. Zack Keinan, Individually and as General Partner of Scintilla Holdings, Ltd.; Scintilla Holdings, Ltd., as General Partner of Scintilla Fund, L.P.; And Boaz Toshav, (Mass. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

SUPERIOR COURT

MOSHE YANAI, RACHEL YANAI, AND MICHAL INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT LLC v. ZACK KEINAN, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS GENERAL PARTNER OF SCINTILLA HOLDINGS, LTD.; SCINTILLA HOLDINGS, LTD., AS GENERAL PARTNER OF SCINTILLA FUND, L.P.; AND BOAZ TOSHAV

Docket: 2584CV00565-BLS2
Dates: March 20, 2025
Present: Kenneth W. Salinger
County: SUFFOLK
Keywords: DECISION AND ORDER ON PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR A PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION AND THE MOTION TO STRIKE PLAINTIFFS’ REPLY MEMORANDUM AND DECLARATIONS

Moshe and Rachel Yanai pledged their membership interests in Michal International Investment LLC (“MII”) as security for loans by Scintilla Fund, L.P. The outstanding balance is roughly $33 million. The Fund (acting through Zack Keinan, who is the general partner of the Fund’s general partner) contends that there have been “Events of Default” that entitle it to take control of and to sell MII. It removed Moshe Yanai as Manager of MII and replaced him with Boaz Toshav. The Fund plans to conduct a public sale of MII at the end of this month. The Yanais seek a preliminary injunction barring the Defendants from acting on behalf of MII or the Yanais, or purporting to do so, and barring the planned sale of the Yanais’ ownership interests in MII.

The Court concludes that the claims that give rise to the motion for preliminary injunction are properly before it. The Court will resolve the questions as to service of process by retroactively authorizing the service that succeeded in giving all defendants actual notice of this lawsuit. The Court also concludes that it may exercise personal jurisdiction over the defendants; the claims relevant here need not be brought in Israel; no choice of law issues need be decided at this time; the Yanais, as the sole members of the LLC, may bring suit on behalf of and in the name of MII; and the SPV Guarantor is not a necessary party. The Court will also exercise its discretion to deny the motion by Keinan and the Fund to strike plaintiffs’ reply memorandum and declarations.

As to the merits, the Court will deny Plaintiffs’ motion in part to the extent that it seeks to bar the Fund from acting on behalf of MII or as attorney-in-fact (for limited purposes) of the Yanais, or to bar Toshav from acting as MII’s Manager. The Yanais are not likely to succeed in proving that the Fund’s

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exercise of the Yanais’ voting rights as Members of MII, its removal of Moshe Yanai as Manager of MII, or its appointment of Boaz Toshav as successor manager was unlawful. The record shows that the Yanais and MII failed to disclose a material breach that was therefore not conditionally waived by the Fund and that, in any case, they also committed additional material breaches constitute and revived other Events of Default. The Fund therefore was and is entitled to exercise its conditional right to take control of MII.

However, the Court will allow Plaintiffs’ motion in part to the extent that it seeks to bar, at least for now, any sale of the Yanais’ ownership interests in MII. The Yanais are very likely to succeed in proving that the planned sale of their ownership interest in MII next week would violate the Uniform Commercial Codee and the Pledge Agreements because the sale process undertaken by the Fund does not come close to being commercially reasonable. They are also likely to succeed in proving that the participation of Mr. Keinan and Mr. Toshav in this planned sale constitutes tortious interference with the Yanais’ rights under the Pledge Agreements. In addition, the Yanais would suffer irreparable harm from such a sale, and the balance of harms favors the granting of preliminary relief, and the Court concludes that there is good cause to issue a preliminary injunction without requiring Plaintiffs to post any bond.

Though the Court is enjoining Defendants from carrying out the planned sale of MII membership interests, Defendants may seek reconsideration if they take the time and make the effort to plan a commercially reasonable sale. Seeking reconsideration would be appropriate if, and only if, Defendants have a good faith basis to believe that they can show there has been a material change in circumstances and can demonstrate that a revised sale plan would be commercially reasonable.[1]

In the meantime, the parties have a further opportunity to agree upon—and this time fully implement—an alternative resolution of their dispute.

The record shows that both sides in this case have been behaving badly.

On the one hand, MII and Moshe Yanai committed flagrant breaches of their obligations under a June 2023 Side Letter to pay to the Fund the full proceeds received by MII from its subsequent sales of shares in eToro Group Ltd.

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[1] Cf. Blake v. Hometown Am. Communities, Inc., 486 Mass. 268, 278 (2020) (“if there is no material change in circumstances, a judge is not obliged to reconsider a case, issue, or question of law after it has been decided”) (quoting Littles v. Commissioner of Correction, 444 Mass. 871, 878 (2005)).

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According to Plaintiffs’ verified complaint, MII instead used those funds to provide additional capital to its portfolio companies, despite is unambiguous promise and contractual obligation to pay them in full to the Fund. In addition, MII and Yanai also committed seemingly undisputed additional breaches of other material terms of the December 2024 Omnibus Agreement and Waiver. As a result, the Fund had the contractual right to step in and exercise the Yanais’ voting rights as Members of MII.

On the other hand, Defendants have not come close to making commercially reasonable efforts to sell the Yanais’ membership interests in MII. Plaintiffs’ argument that the current sale process and terms seem designed to ensure that the Fund will be the only bidder for MII appears to be well founded. The current record strongly suggests that Defendants are merely going through the motions of conducting a public sale, with the expectation that their lackluster and lackadaisical efforts will not elicit any bidders to compete with the Fund in bidding to purchase MII. That is wholly improper and unacceptable.

The Court urges the parties to work cooperatively to negotiate and quickly implement a business solution that ensures the Fund will promptly be paid in full. In the meantime, the Court will enter a preliminary injunction to ensure that the Fund does not purchase or otherwise dispose of the Yanais’ membership interests in MII through a process and on terms that are the antithesis of commercial reasonableness.

1. Factual Background. The Court finds that the verified complaint and declarations submitted to date establish the following.

1.1. MII’s Business. Moshe Yanai and Rachel Yanai each own 50 percent of MII, which is in the business of investing in non-public operating companies. The verified complaint states that “MII is a privately held Massachusetts entity whose only activity is the ownership of securities issued by privately held Israeli high-tech enterprises.”[2] MII is a Massachusetts limited liability company that does business in Brookline, Massachusetts.

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Moshe Yanai, Rachel Yanai, and Michal International Investment LLC v. Zack Keinan, Individually and as General Partner of Scintilla Holdings, Ltd.; Scintilla Holdings, Ltd., as General Partner of Scintilla Fund, L.P.; And Boaz Toshav, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moshe-yanai-rachel-yanai-and-michal-international-investment-llc-v-zack-masssuperct-2025.