Classicstar Mare Lease Litig. Neil v. Plummer
Classicstar Mare Lease Litig. Neil v. Plummer
Opinion of the Court
This matter is before the Court on the Motion to Dismiss filed by Defendant John Parrott [DE 33]. Plaintiffs have filed a Response [DE 176], and Defendant has filed a Reply [DE 181] in further support of his motion.
I.
Plaintiffs aver that the various defendants, acting together, defrauded them and other unsuspecting individuals and businesses out of more than five hundred million dollars ($500,000,000.00). Plaintiffs aver that Defendant Parrott, among others, played a role in devising, perpetrating, carrying out, marketing and/or covering up the fraudulent Mare Lease Program scheme to individual and business investors, including Plaintiffs.
Plaintiffs aver that defendant David Plummer owned Classic Breeders, LLC. See Complaint, at ¶¶ 61-64. Classic Breeders, LLC was later acquired by GeoStar, the name was changed to ClassicStar, LLC ("ClassicStar"). See Complaint, at ¶ 65. Robinson, Parrott and Ferguson owned the primary interests in GeoStar and controlled it. See Complaint, at ¶ 40. ClassicStar's affairs were conducted through its parent and/or subsidiary companies, such as ClassicStar Farms, LLC, and ClassicStar Farms, Inc. See, e.g. , Complaint, at ¶ 67. The Mare Lease Programs were represented as a method of participating in the thoroughbred horse industry, wherein a participant would (1) lease the rights to a mare for a breeding season, (2) select a stallion nomination to sire a foal with the leased mare and (3) retain or sell the resulting - and presumably extremely valuable - thoroughbred foal. See Complaint at ¶ 54. The purported arrangement usually included the price of board and insurance for the mare and/or resultant foal. Id. This lease arrangement was touted as having beneficial tax consequences *680for the participant, which were represented by the defendants to be compliant with the Internal Revenue Code. See, e.g. , Complaint, at ¶¶ 71, 85, 92, 113, 131.
After GeoStar's acquisition of Classic Breeders, LLC, ClassicStar began selling many more Mare Lease Programs than the thoroughbred interests owned by ClassicStar could support. See, e.g. , Complaint, at ¶ 5, 68, 99. Defendants, including Parrott, intentionally oversold the Mare Lease Programs knowing that ClassicStar, ClassicStar Farms, LLC or ClassicStar Farms, Inc. did not own enough thoroughbred mare interests sufficient to support the number of Mare Lease Programs sold. See Complaint, at ¶ 6. The defendants, including the Parrott, worked together to aggressively market the Mare Lease Programs to individuals and business with significant incomes and assets, despite the fact that they knew that ClassicStar, ClassicStar Farms, LLC or ClassicStar Farms, Inc. did not own enough thoroughbred mare interests sufficient to support the number of Mare Lease Programs sold. See, e.g. , Complaint, at ¶¶ 2, 68, 99.
These parties frequently sent correspondence, made or received telephone calls, and certainly received funds from investors using the mail and wires, all in order to make this plan work. In order to conceal the fact that the Programs were unsustainable, participants were urged by defendants to exchange their Mare Lease Program interests for other supposedly valuable business opportunities with entities related to and/or controlled by defendants and obscuring the fact that the exact same mares were being marketed and leased to multiple investors at the same time. See, e.g. , Complaint, at ¶ 5, 111.
For his part, Parrott owned a "primary interest" in GeoStar, was an officer and/or director of GEEI, took "active roles in the management of ClassicStar's sale and promotion of the Mare Lease Programs," including the review of marketing materials and the negotiation of commission contracts with salespeople. Compl., ¶¶ 40, 42, 76-77. GeoStar received proceeds from the sales of ClassicStar Mare Lease Programs which were used to fund its operations and, by extension, so did Parrott.
II.
In evaluating a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the factual allegations of the Complaint "must be enough" that the right to relief is "above the speculative level" and is "plausible on its face." Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly ,
III.
In his motion to dismiss, John Parrott argues that (1) Plaintiffs' RICO claims fail as they fail to specify which subsection of RICO govern their claim and would, in any event, (2) fail because Plaintiffs' have failed to properly plead a RICO enterprise. He argues, as well, (3) that the RICO claims would also fail because they fail to plead the underlying predicate acts with the particularity required by Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(b) and that (4) the 1962(a) claim fails because Plaintiffs have not pleaded an injury directly related to the investment or use of illegally obtained income. Parrott next argues that (5) Plaintiffs' Colorado Organized Crime Control Act ("COCCA") claims fail for the same reason as their RICO claims; (6) Plaintiffs' fraud claims *681fail for failure to state their claims against him with the particularity required by Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(b) ; (7) Plaintiffs' negligent misrepresentation claims fail as they have not alleged misrepresentations made by him; (8) Plaintiffs' civil theft claim fails because their fraud claims against him fail; (9) Plaintiffs' accounting claim fails because they have not properly alleged that Parrott entered into a contract with, owed a fiduciary duty to, or received property from Plaintiffs; and (10) Plaintiffs' fraudulent transfer claims against him should be denied.
A. RICO
As an initial matter, the Complaint does not fail for failure to specify which subsection of
These allegations, the details of which are accepted as true for these purposes, clearly establish that: (1) the RICO defendants used money derived from alleged racketeering activity, stating a claim under
Further, the Court concludes that Plaintiffs have pleaded an "enterprise" distinct from the "persons" cognizable under the statute. An "enterprise" includes any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other legal entity, and any union or group of individuals associated in fact although not a legal entity.
Citing In re Tucker Freight Lines Inc. ,
The "enterprise" alleged is not ClassicStar, but rather the "Mare Lease Marketing Enterprise," which was comprised of the following "persons": David Plummer, Spencer Plummer, Tony Ferguson, John Parrot, Thom Robinson, ClassicStar, LLC, ClassicStar Farms, LLC, ClassicStar Thoroughbreds of Kentucky, ClassicStar 2004, ClassicStar 2004 Powerfoal Stable, ClassicStar 2005 PowerFoal Stables, ClassicStar 2003 Racing Partnership, GeoStar Corp., FEEP, GeoStar Equine Energy, Inc., GeoStar Financial Services, NELC, New NEL, Terry Green and Strategic Opportunity Solutions, LLC. See Complaint, 60, 425-435. Thus, Parrott, the other moving defendants whose requests for relief are now moot, and individuals and entities entirely unrelated to ClassicStar, such as Terry Green, are the persons forming the Mare Lease Marketing Enterprise. While, under the "distinctness" requirement, a corporation may not be liable under section 1962(c) for participating in the affairs of an enterprise that consists only of its own subdivisions, agents, or members, and cannot join with its own members to undertake "regular corporate activity" and thereby become an enterprise distinct from itself, Davis v. Mutual Life Ins. Co. ,
The facts of this case can be distinguished from Puckett and Yellow Bus Lines because the Complaint does not allege an enterprise consisting solely of one corporation (or one union) acting by and through its employees. The distinctiveness requirement is met because the Mare Lease Marketing Enterprise consisted of several entities and individuals, including those outside the chain of corporate ownership of ClassicStar, GeoStar and other ostensibly related entity defendants. Moreover, the activities of the Mare Lease Marketing Enterprise were not the "regular corporate activities" of ClassicStar, which were purportedly breeding, raising and boarding thoroughbred horses, and the like. See , e.g. , Complaint ¶¶ 72, 82-84. Thus, the Complaint adequately pleads the element of "enterprise."
*683That the conspirators include related corporations, such as GeoStar and ClassicStar, and their officers, directors, managers and/or employees, such as Ferguson, Robinson and Parrott, does not, without more, mean that there is no distinction between the "persons" and the "enterprise." For example, taking the averments of the Complaint as true, GeoStar and ClassicStar are separate and distinct legal entities, and thus separate and distinct "persons" for RICO purposes. Similarly, Ferguson, Robinson and Parrott are both corporate owners/employees and natural persons, and they are distinct from the corporation itself, a legally separate entity with different rights on the facts before this Court. RICO requires no more "separateness" than that. Cedric Kushner Promotions, Ltd. v. King ,
With respect to the requisite predicate acts, which must be pleaded with particularity in accordance with Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(b), the Court is satisfied. Plaintiff has pleaded that each of the defendants participated in a scheme to defraud knowing or having reason to anticipate that use of the mail or wires would occur and that each such use would further the fraudulent scheme. Advocacy Org. for Patients and Providers v. Auto Club Ins. Ass'n ,
Plaintiffs' Complaint describes the scheme in detail, contrary to Parrott's assertion that it does not. Defendants pointing their fingers at one another does not change that Plaintiffs have averred in detail the sale of Mare Lease Programs consisting primarily of thoroughbred breeding pairs that either did not exist or whose values were so inflated as to make them wholly fictional. The Programs were nonetheless sold through promotion of both their great profit potential and their alleged tax benefits, and Parrott, among others, played a role in inducing the Plaintiffs to participate in the Programs, then accepted the benefits of the Plaintiffs' participation with knowledge of the underlying fraud.
Parrott's alleged involvement in this scheme is averred in sufficient detail as to give him more than fair notice of the behavior underlying his respective liability. See Michaels Building Co. v. Ameritrust Co., NA. ,
In considering a motion to dismiss a complaint based on a similarly structured scheme, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit noted "no one fact in isolation demonstrates that there was a scheme to defraud. Rather, when the facts are viewed in their entirety and inferences are made therefrom, a scheme to defraud emerges." See Atlas Pile Driving Co. v. DiCon Financial Co. ,
The Sixth Circuit has taken a similar approach to RICO claims involving mail or wire fraud. In Mackenzie v. Murphy ,
So long as the Complaint also described a pattern of racketeering activity by an enterprise to which the defendant belonged, as here, that would be enough.
Additionally, the communications need not themselves contain false information to serve as the basis for mail or wire fraud. See *685Dana Corp. v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield Mutual of Northern Ohio ,
Allegedly, the invoices, schedules, illustrations and summaries sent by ClassicStar reflect the fraudulently inflated values and misstatement regarding the tax aspects of the Programs, and the payments made by Plaintiffs to ClassicStar obviously allowed for the collection of the fraudulently obtained proceeds. The misrepresentations identified in the Complaint, made over the phone or through the mail, directly resulted in the payments to ClassicStar, a circumstance both foreseeable and intended by each participant in the scheme. The description of these activities in the Complaint give Parrott ample notice of his culpable behavior and satisfies the requirement that Plaintiffs plead the underlying fraudulent acts with particularity. See also Kukuk v. Fredal , No. 99-CV-74014-DT,
As to whether Plaintiffs have alleged that they have suffered harm by reason of the investment or use of the proceeds of racketeering in an enterprise in violation of
Courts have held that an
Moreover, the Moving Defendants' investment or use of the racketeering proceeds from earlier fraud to pay the next set of investor-victims also made it much more difficult for Plaintiffs to discover the fraudulent scheme. See Kmart Corporation v. Areeva, Inc. , Civil Case No. 04-40342,
B. Other Claims
In light of all the above, Defendant Parrott's argument that Plaintiffs' claims brought under the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act, C.R.S. § 18-17-104, must fail for the same reasons that their RICO claims fail is unsupported. Because Plaintiffs' Complaint alleges an enterprise, properly pleads an "investment injury" and is sufficiently particularly plead as to the RICO claims, the COCCA claims are sufficient and Parrott's motion to dismiss will be denied. Similarly, because the predicate acts of fraud for the purposes of RICO are sufficiently pleaded, Parrott's motion to dismiss claims of fraud and claims of theft by deception and, for that matter, his argument that there is no need for an accounting of his gains from these torts fail. If Parrott reviewed and approved of marketing materials used by ClassicStar, including the falsely stated projected returns and misleading attorney opinion letters, he could have anticipated that participants would rely on those materials, as well as FEEP documents, for example, in deciding to participate in the Programs. Plaintiffs aver that they did. The pleading concerning the scheme in the Complaint, notably the fraudulent representations and Parrott's connection to it all, is enough to show that the claims are plausible on their face and permit the Court to draw the reasonable inference that Parrott is liable for the misconduct alleged. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) ; Twombly ,
IV.
Accordingly, and for all of the reasons stated above, IT IS ORDERED that John Parrott's Motion to Dismiss shall be and the same hereby is DENIED .
The Motion is moot as to all other moving Defendants, who have been terminated as participants in this action for a variety of reasons during the pendency of the case.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- IN RE CLASSICSTAR MARE LEASE LITIGATION Neil and Anne Baker v. David Plummer
- Status
- Published