A New York lending company has filed suit in Third District Court against Canadian businessman Jack Bistricer, and half a dozen of his Park City-related companies, mostly operating under the Talisker corporate name.
The litigation says that Bistricer has defaulted on a mega-million-dollar loan and has avoided paying it off by shifting and depleting assets out of his Park City companies to a different corporate alter ego.
The lawsuit was filed last week by the company Midtown Acquisitions.
The suit names several companies that, it says, are merely a façade for Bistricer, including Talisker Finance, Talisker Partnership, Talisker Development Corporation and United Park City Mines.
The suit says that all the entities are run by him or members of his family. They are allegedly under-capitalized, don’t maintain corporate records or pay out dividends except as directed by Bistricer, they don’t have existing or functioning officers or managers other than Bistricer, and are used by him to siphon funds.
One of those entities, United Park City Mines, was sued by the EPA just a couple of weeks ago for the costs of clean-up on United Park’s Richardson Flat mine tailings site.
The plaintiff, Midtown, says it’s the holder of a loan for $150 million, that Wells Fargo made in 2006 to several Talisker-affiliated companies and properties. The purpose of the loan was to buy and develop several parcels adjacent to Deer Valley, the Park City Mountain Resort and the Canyons.
Bistricer, and the Talisker companies that were supposed to guarantee the loan, failed to pay it off. They allegedly missed at least six successive deadlines for payment, from 2009 to late 2014.
In 2015, Wells Fargo filed suit to foreclose on ten Talisker-related companies. A judicial decree allowed the bank to go to a foreclosure sale, but the lawsuit says, that left an amount of over $107 million owing.
However, in December of 2015, Bistricer allegedly transferred the assets out of three Talisker entities into a new company that he controls, Hampstead Equities.
The plaintiff says they didn’t discover the transfer had taken place until April of last year.
The lawsuit is charging Bistricer with Fraudulent Transfer of Funds, a Breach of Good Faith and Fair Dealing, and other Claims.
The litigation also says that after one of his previous defaults, Bistricer signed an agreement that includes a “Bad Acts Guaranty”. That stipulates that Bistricer is personally liable for the entire loan.
