Securities and Exchange Commission v. Champion-Cain

District Court, S.D. California·Decided May 6, 2020·No. 3:19-cv-01628·Unknown

Opinion

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE Case No.: 3:19-cv-1628-LAB-AHG COMMISSION, ORDER GRANTING: Plaintiff, v. (1) RECEIVER’S MOTION FOR APPROVAL OF SALE OF THE GINA CHAMPION-CAIN AND ANI SWELL COFFEE RESTAURANT DEVELOPMENT, LLC, PROPERTY AND ASSOCIATED Defendants, and PERSONAL PROPERTY; (2) RECEIVER’S MOTION FOR AMERICAN NATIONAL APPROVAL OF SALE OF THE PROPERTY AND ASSOCIATED Relief Defendant. PERSONAL PROPERTY AND LIQUOR LICENSE; and

(3) RECEIVER’S MOTION FOR PERSONAL PROPERTY AND ASSIGNMENT OF COMMERCIAL LEASE ASSOCIATED WITH BAO BEACH RESTAURANT

[ECF Nos. 275, 276, 289]

As described in prior orders, see, e.g., ECF Nos. 54, 162, 163, this is an action brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) against Defendants ANI Development, LLC (“ANI Development”) and Gina Champion-Cain and Relief Defendant American National Investments, Inc. (“ANI Inc.”), alleging violations of federal securities laws based on a purportedly fraudulent liquor license loan scheme. ECF No. 1. On September 3, 2019, the Court established an equitable receivership and appointed Krista L. Freitag (“Receiver”) as a permanent receiver of ANI Development and ANI Inc., authorizing her to take control over all funds and assets owned, managed, or in the possession or control of the receivership entities. See ECF No. 6 at 14-16. In that role, the Receiver acts under the control and direction of the Court to facilitate the “orderly and efficient administration of the estate . . . for the benefit of creditors.” SEC v. Hardy, 803 F.2d 1034, 1038 (9th Cir. 1986). See also Atl. Tr. Co. v. Chapman, 208 U.S. 360, 370 (1908) (explaining that a motion to appoint a receiver to take charge of property is “to the end that the property might be cared for and preserved for all who had or might have an interest in the proceeds of its sale. . . . Immediately upon such appointment and after the qualification of the receiver, the property passed into the custody of the law, and thenceforward its administration was wholly under the control of the court by its officer [], the receiver.”). On December 11, 2019, the presiding judge in this action, Chief Judge Burns, granted the parties’ Joint Motion (ECF No. 156) to give limited consent to the undersigned to hear and directly decide all motions filed in this action to approve sales of receivership assets. ECF No. 160. See also 28 U.S.C. § 636(c); CivLR 72.1(g). All property sale motions are set before the undersigned pursuant to that grant of consent. Before the Court are three pending motions seeking Court approval of the sale of restaurant properties and related property or property interests owned by receivership entities: (1) the Receiver’s Motion for Approval of Sale of the Swell Coffee Restaurant Property and Associated Personal Property (ECF No. 275) (the “Swell Coffee Motion”), filed March 12, 2020; (2) the Receiver’s Motion for Approval of Sale of the Saska’s Restaurant Property and Associated Personal Property and Liquor License (ECF No. 276) (the “Saska’s Motion”), filed March 12, 2020; and (3) the Receiver’s Motion for Approval of Sale of Personal Property and Assignment of Commercial Lease Associated with Bao Beach Restaurant (ECF No. 289) (the “Bao Beach Motion”), filed March 27, 2020. The Court considers these three motions together for the sake of efficiency and because many of the background facts overlap with respect to the Receiver’s solicitation of brokers and marketing of the properties. Pursuant to the Court’s briefing schedule orders, responses in opposition to the Swell Coffee Motion and the Saska’s Motion were due no later than March 30, 2020, and responses to the Bao Beach Motion were due no later than April 10, 2020. ECF Nos. 278, 290. No responses were filed. Additionally, in both briefing schedule orders, the Court noted that “[if] no opposition is filed by the deadline, and the overbid submission deadline has passed with no overbids, the Court may take any unopposed motion under submission without oral argument.” ECF Nos. 278 at 2, 290 at 2. The Receiver reported that no overbids for any of the properties were submitted by the applicable deadlines advertised to the public in accordance with the statutorily mandated notice and overbid process. See ECF Nos. 296, 297, 307. Therefore, being fully advised and noting the lack of opposition, the Court will GRANT the Swell Coffee Motion (ECF No. 275), Saska’s Motion (ECF No. 276), and Bao Beach Motion (ECF No. 289) without oral argument,1 for the reasons explained more fully below. “[I]t is a recognized principle of law that the district court has broad powers and wide discretion to determine the appropriate relief in an equity receivership.” SEC v. Lincoln Thrift Ass’n, 577 F.2d 600, 606 (9th Cir. 1978). Where a district court sits in equity,

1 In consideration of the lack of opposition and non-receipt of qualified overbids, the Court took all three present motions under submission on April 23, 2020 and vacated the “[u]nless a statute in so many words, or by a necessary and inescapable inference, restricts the court’s jurisdiction in equity, the full scope of that jurisdiction is to be recognized and applied. ‘The great principles of equity, securing complete justice, should not be yielded to light inferences, or doubtful construction.’” Porter v. Warner Holding Co., 328 U.S. 395, 398 (1946). “[A] district court’s power to supervise an equity receivership and to determine the appropriate action to be taken in the administration of the receivership is extremely broad.” Hardy, 803 F.2d at 1037. As part of this broad discretion, the district court sitting in equity and having custody and control of property “has power to order a sale of the same in its discretion. The power of sale necessarily follows the power to take control of and to preserve property[.]” SEC v. Am. Capital Investments, Inc., 98 F.3d 1133, 1144 (9th Cir. 1996), abrogated on other grounds by Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Env’t, 523 U.S. 83, 93-94 (1998) (quoting 2 Ralph E. Clark, Treatise on Law & Practice of Receivers § 482 (3d ed. 1992)). If the court approves an equitable receiver’s proposed property sale, the sale “does not . . . purport to convey ‘legal’ title, but rather ‘good,’ equitable title enforced by an injunction against suit.” Id. (citing 2 Clark, Treatise on Law & Practice of Receivers, §§ 342, 344, 482(a), 487, 489, 491). Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2001(a), real property in the possession of an appointed receiver is subject to a public sale process, “upon such terms and conditions as the court directs.” 28 U.S.C. § 2002 further requires that notice be published once a week for at least four weeks prior to the sale in at least one newspaper regularly issued and of general circulation in the county, state, or judicial district where the realty is located.2 The purpose of such notice “is to inform the public of the kind and condition of the property to be sold, the time, the place, and the terms of the sale. It is to secure bidders and prevent the sacrifice

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Related

Atlantic Trust Co. v. Chapman
208 U.S. 360 (Supreme Court, 1908)
Swanson v. Marra Brothers, Inc.
328 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1946)
Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment
523 U.S. 83 (Supreme Court, 1998)