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UPDATE 1-Sears sues Lampert, claiming he looted assets and drove it into bankruptcy

UPDATE 1-Sears sues Lampert, claiming he looted assets and drove it into bankruptcy

更新1-西爾斯起訴蘭伯特,聲稱他掠奪資產並將其推向破產
路透社 ·  2019/04/19 01:52

(Adds details from complaint, comments, byline)
   By Jonathan Stempel and Jessica DiNapoli
   NEW YORK, April 18 (Reuters) - Sears Holdings Corp  sued longtime former chairman Eddie Lampert, his hedge fund ESL Investments and others like Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, claiming they illegally siphoned billions of dollars of assets from the retailer before it went bankrupt.
   The lawsuit, made public on Thursday, was filed by the restructuring team winding down Sears' bankruptcy estate and suing on behalf of creditors, many of whom blame Lampert for the retailer's downfall.
   It followed the billionaire's $5.2 billion purchase in February of most Sears assets, including the DieHard and Kenmore brands, after a bankruptcy auction.
   The complaint seeks the repayment of "billions of dollars of value looted from Sears," including while it was in what Lampert would later call a "death spiral" where it sold core assets to meet daily expenses with no real plan for becoming profitable.
   "Had defendants not taken these improper and illegal actions, Sears would have had billions of dollars more to pay its third-party creditors today and would not have endured the amount of disruption, expense, and job losses resulting from its recent bankruptcy filing," the complaint said.
   Sears filed for Chapter 11 protection in October after a prolonged decline under Lampert marked by large losses, scant investment and lost market share to retailers such as Walmart Inc , Home Depot Inc and Amazon.com Inc .
   Others sued include ESL President Kunal Kamlani; Bruce Berkowitz and his Fairholme Capital Management, which was a large Sears shareholder; and Seritage Growth Properties , which took over 266 of Sears' best stores in a 2015 spinoff.
   Mnuchin, a college roommate of Lampert's at Yale University, had been a director at Sears and ESL, and previously worked with Lampert at Goldman Sachs.
   In a statement on behalf of ESL, Lampert and Kalmani, ESL said it vigorously disputed the lawsuit, calling the allegations "misleading or just flat wrong," and saying all transactions were done in good faith and for shareholders' benefit.
   Fairholme said it was reviewing the complaint. Seritage and the Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
  
   'DEATH SPIRAL'
   Lampert created Sears Holdings through the 2005 merger of Sears, Roebuck & Co and Kmart Holdings Corp.
   According to the complaint, Lampert and other insiders had by 2011 begun hatching a plan to "strip" Sears of assets, as the Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based retailer's performance fell short and more ESL investors were demanding their money back.
   The complaint said Lampert ordered the creation of bogus financial plans projecting a Sears turnaround, and used them to help transfer five major assets worth more than $2 billion, including Land's End and Sears Hometown Outlet.
   Sears' bankruptcy estate in particular faulted the conduct of Lampert and others in the $2.58 billion Seritage spinoff.
   It said that transaction undervalued the real estate by at least $649 million, stuck Sears with hundreds of millions of dollars of rent and fees from leasing most of the 266 stores back, and was structured to benefit favored shareholders like Lampert, in part through Seritage's payment of dividends.
   Seritage reported $24.1 million of funds from operations in 2018, a measure of cash flow, and last July obtained a $2 billion loan package from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc . Berkshire is not a defendant.
   Thursday's lawsuit was filed with the U.S. bankruptcy court in White Plains, New York.
   It seeks a declaration that the alleged looting constituted "fraudulent transfers" that should be undone or, more likely, justified damages.
   The reorganized Sears was expected to have about 425 Sears and Kmart stores, down from roughly 3,500 at the time of the 2005 merger.
   The case is Sears Holdings Corp et al v Lampert et al, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 19-ap-08250. The main bankruptcy case is In re Sears Holdings Corp in the same court, No. 18-bk-23538.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Steve
Orlofsky and Marguerita Choy)
((jon.stempel@thomsonreuters.com; +1-646-223-6317; Reuters
Messaging: jon.stempel.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)

(添加投訴、評論、署名的詳細信息)喬納森·斯坦佩爾和傑西卡·迪納波利著路透紐約4月18日電-西爾斯控股(Sears Holdings Corp)起訴長期擔任前董事長的埃迪·蘭伯特(Eddie Lampert)、他的對衝基金ESL Investments和財政部長史蒂文·姆欽(Steven Mnuchin)等人,聲稱他們在這家零售商破產前非法挪用了數十億美元的資產。週四公佈的這起訴訟是由重組團隊提起的,重組團隊逐步結束了西爾斯的破產資產,並代表債權人提起訴訟,其中許多債權人指責蘭伯特是這家零售商倒閉的罪魁禍首。在此之前,這位億萬富翁在2月份破產拍賣後,以52億美元收購了西爾斯的大部分資產,包括DieHard和Kenmore品牌。起訴書要求償還“從西爾斯掠奪的數十億美元的價值”,包括當時西爾斯正處於蘭伯特後來所説的“死亡螺旋”中,該公司出售核心資產以支付日常開支,卻沒有真正的盈利計劃。起訴書稱:“如果被告沒有采取這些不當和非法的行動,西爾斯今天就會多支付數十億美元給第三方債權人,也不會承受最近申請破產造成的中斷、費用和失業的金額。”西爾斯(Sears)在蘭伯特(Lampert)領導下長期下滑,表現為鉅額虧損、投資不足,市場份額被沃爾瑪(Walmart Inc.)、家得寶(Home Depot Inc.)和亞馬遜(Amazon.com Inc.)等零售商搶走。在此之後,西爾斯於去年10月申請破產保護。其他被起訴的公司包括ESL總裁庫納爾·卡馬尼(Kural Kamlani);布魯斯·伯科維茨(Bruce Berkowitz)和他的費爾霍姆資本管理公司(Fairholme Capital Management),後者是西爾斯的大股東;以及Seritage Growth Properties,該公司在2015年剝離出西爾斯最好的266家門店。姆努欽是蘭伯特在耶魯大學的大學室友,曾在西爾斯(Sears)和ESL擔任董事,之前曾在高盛(Goldman Sachs)與蘭伯特共事。ESL在代表ESL、Lampert和Kalmani發表的一份聲明中表示,它對這起訴訟提出了強烈異議,稱這些指控“具有誤導性或完全錯誤”,並表示所有交易都是本着誠信和股東利益進行的。Fairholme表示,它正在審查申訴。Seritage和財政部沒有立即回覆記者的置評請求。“死亡螺旋”蘭伯特通過2005年西爾斯、羅巴克公司和凱馬特控股公司的合併創建了西爾斯控股公司。根據起訴書,蘭伯特和其他內部人士到2011年已經開始醖釀一項“剝離”西爾斯資產的計劃,因為這家總部位於伊利諾伊州霍夫曼莊園(Hoffman EStates)的零售商業績不佳,越來越多的ESL投資者要求退還資金。起訴書説,蘭伯特下令創建虛假的財務計劃,預計西爾斯將扭虧為盈,並利用這些計劃幫助轉移了價值超過20億美元的五項主要資產,其中包括Land‘s End和西爾斯家鄉門店。西爾斯的破產財產尤其指責蘭伯特和其他人在25.8億美元的Seritage剝離中的行為。該公司表示,這筆交易將房地產價值低估了至少6.49億美元,讓西爾斯揹負了數億美元的租金和回租266家門店的費用,而且這筆交易的結構是為了讓蘭伯特這樣的優先股東受益,部分原因是Seritage支付了股息。Seritage報告2018年運營資金為2410萬美元,這是一項衡量現金流的指標。去年7月,Seritage從沃倫·巴菲特(Warren Buffett)的伯克希爾哈撒韋公司(Berkshire Hathaway Inc.)獲得了20億美元的貸款。伯克希爾不是被告。週四的訴訟是向紐約州懷特普萊恩斯的美國破產法院提起的。它尋求一項聲明,即所謂的搶劫構成了“欺詐性轉移”,應該撤銷,或者更有可能的是,合理的損害賠償。重組後的西爾斯預計將擁有約425家西爾斯和凱馬特門店,低於2005年合併時的約3,500家。本案是西爾斯控股公司等人訴蘭伯特等人,美國破產法院,紐約南區,編號19-AP-08250。主要的破產案件在同一法院的Re Sears Holdings Corp,編號18-BK-23538。(Jonathan Stempel在紐約報道;Steve編輯Orlofsky和Marguerita Choy)(jon.stempel@thomsonreurs.com;+1-646-223-6317;路透社消息:jon.stempel.thomsonreurs.com@reurs.net)

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