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Financial maneuvers looted Art Van Furniture before its collapse in 2000, according to a federal lawsuit by the firm's bankruptcy trustee.
Art Van Elslander died four years ago. (Photo: Facebook)
The Detroit News looks at the claim:
Alfred Giuliano, the Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee, ... is seeking to recover more than $105 million from the [founding] family — including the estate of the company's late founder, Art Van Elslander, who died in February 2018.
The New Jersey backruptcy specialist says family "members doomed the Warren-based business by making more than $105 million in 'fraudulent transfers' through real estate deals during Art Van's sale to a private equity firm in 2017 for $620 million," according to the paper's subscriber-access article.
Those transactions stripped the company of its assets and left Art Van with crushing debts, according to the complaint filed earlier this month in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
In a statement to The Detroit News, the Van Elslander family denies any wrongdoing. ...
Besides Art Van Elslander's estate and a trust he established, the defendants named in the lawsuit include his [10] children.
