United States v. Belfort
United States v. Belfort
Opinion of the Court
The United States seeks a writ of continuing garnishment under the Federal Debt Collection Procedures Act,
BACKGROUND
In September of 1998, the defendant was charged with securities fraud and money laundering in connection with purchases and sales of Dollar Time Group, Inc., and Aquanatural Company. (See ECF No. 1.) The defendant and his co-defendant, Daniel Mark Porush, both of whom had ownership interests in Dollar Time and Aquanatural, opened a Swiss bank account and smuggled cash into the account to finance illicit securities transactions. (Id. at 5-6, 8-10.) As part of their scheme, they caused millions of shares of Dollar Time and Aquanatural stock to be issued at below-market prices to their own offshore entities, which they falsely claimed were owned by foreign individuals. (Id. at 6-7.) They encouraged customers to purchase stock to generate inflated market demand, and sold their stock back into the U.S. marketplace, reaping substantial profits, which they used to buy additional stock in the companies, and then sold shares to their firm to transfer profits from their offshore entities to their firm. (Id. at 7-8.)
On May 25,1999, the defendant pleaded guilty to multiple counts of conspiracy to defraud the United States, money laundering, and manipulative and deceptive devices. (ECF No. 37.) The Honorable John Gleeson sentenced him to 42 months in prison, and ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $110,362,993.87.
*267At issue here is the extent to which the defendant's interest in an entity called Delos Living is protected from garnishment by the Consumer Credit Protection Act.
In November of 2014, Delos Living entered into an agreement not with the defendant as an individual, but with a company that he set up called JB Global Holdings.
Both sides filed memoranda, (see ECF Nos. 215, 220, 223, 230), and I heard oral argument on May 16, 2018.
*268DISCUSSION
The government seeks a writ of garnishment of the defendant's Delos Living membership interests. The defendant responds that the units are "earnings" under the CCPA that qualify for the 25% garnishment cap. I conclude that those membership interests do not qualify as "earnings" under the CCPA, and are therefore subject to full garnishment.
Under the Federal Debt Collection Procedures Act, "[a] court may issue a writ of garnishment against property (including nonexempt disposable earnings) in which the debtor has a substantial nonexempt interest and which is in the possession, custody, or control of a person other than the debtor, in order to satisfy the judgment against the debtor."
Except as provided in subsection (b) and in section 1675 of this title, the maximum part of the aggregate disposable earnings of an individual for any workweek which is subjected to garnishment may not exceed
(1) 25 per centum of his disposable earnings for that week, or
(2) the amount by which his disposable earnings for that week exceed thirty times the Federal minimum hourly wage prescribed by section 206(a)(1) of Title 29 in effect at the time the earnings are payable, whichever is less.
The plain language of the CCPA does not address the extent, if any, to which the garnishment cap applies to property like the shares at issue here. Nevertheless, a review of the statute's purpose and the relevant case law leads me to conclude that these interests are not what Congress had in mind when it enacted the CCPA. See Kokoszka v. Belford ,
Congress adopted the garnishment limitation in the CCPA to "relieve countless honest debtors driven by economic desperation from plunging into bankruptcy in order to preserve their employment and insure a continued means of support for themselves and their families." Kokoszka ,
The award agreement does not permit the defendant to participate in capital distributions unless and until Delos Living's fair market value exceeds a $300,000,000 hurdle. In other words, the defendant receives no cash from the membership interests until Delos Living's fair market value *269is greater than $300,000,000, which, as far as I am aware, has not occurred. The defendant does not claim, nor could he in light of his financial records and the conditions governing the membership units, that he uses the membership units to support himself and his family at all, let alone on a periodic basis. According to the record, the defendant has relied on another of his companies-again owned solely by him and his fiancée-to pay for millions of dollars of personal expenses.
The Court has not found and the defendant does not cite any case in which a court applied the CCPA's garnishment cap to a similar type of property interest. Courts have, however, concluded that the CCPA exemption does not apply to interests that more closely resemble earnings than the property at issue here. These interests include tax refunds, rollover IRA funds, accounts receivable for work performed, and severance pay received in a lump sum. See Kokoszka ,
Citing a Department of Labor Field Assistance Bulletin, the defendant asserts that the Department of Labor has concluded that stock option plans, like the defendant's agreement with Delos Living, qualify as "earnings" under the CCPA. (ECF No. 215 at 5 (citing Dep't of Labor, Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2016-3 (Nov. 30, 2016).) I do not agree with that interpretation. The Field Assistance Bulletin, which is not binding authority, was meant to provide "guidance to Wage and Hour Division (WHD) field staff regarding the treatment of disability payments from an employment-based disability plan as earnings under the Consumer Credit Protection Act." Dep't of Labor, Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2016-3 (Nov. 30, 2016). The bulletin-which quotes a Black's Law Dictionary definition of compensation-says nothing about the CCPA's application to interests like the Delos Living agreement.
Nor am I persuaded that a passage in the government's brief in France v. United States , --- U.S. ----,
Not only would capping the Delos Living membership units be inconsistent with the purpose of the CCPA-to enable *270the wage earner to support himself and his family on a periodic basis-but applying the cap to this kind of interest under the circumstances would frustrate "the primary and overarching goal" of the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act, "which is to make victims of crime whole, to fully compensate these victims for their losses and to restore these victims to their original state of well-being." United States v. Simmonds ,
CONCLUSION
The government's application for a writ of continuing garnishment of the defendant's membership interests in Delos Living, LLC, is granted, and the defendant's claim of exemption is denied.
SO ORDERED.
The case was reassigned to me on June 7, 2016.
The defendant holds a 50% equity interest in JB Global Holdings; his fiancée owns the other half. (ECF No. 230-2 at 4; see also ECF No. 176 at 1.) The defendant also owns, jointly or wholly, Global Motivation, Inc., JB Global, Inc., and Wolf Holdings Limited. (See ECF No. 223-2 ¶ 3.) Through these companies, the defendant sells products touting his background on Wall Street and his reputation as "The Wolf of Wall Street," and offers other promotions, including the opportunity to "experience the magic of ... two full days of masterminding, brainstorming & one-on-one consulting with [the defendant] and ... an intimate dinner with him at his private residence." See Jordan Belfort, http://jordanbelfort.com. He has published three books: The Wolf of Wall Street , which was the basis for a motion picture, Catching the Wolf of Wall Street: More Incredible True Stories of Fortunes, Schemes, Parties, and Prison , and Way of the Wolf: Straight Line Selling: Master the Art of Persuasion, Influence, and Success .
I do not address the referral fees that Delos Living paid to JB Global Holdings under a separate referral agreement because the government does not dispute that the referral fees are "earnings" under
The Internal Revenue Service defines "profits interests" as "a partnership interest other than a capital interest." Rev. Proc. 93-27, 1993-
The defendant was not present at the hearing because he was in Lithuania in connection with one of his business ventures.
The defendant has also paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to his children through one of his companies, even though they did "nothing" for the company. (See ECF No. 223-2 ¶ 12.)
Reference
- Full Case Name
- United States v. Jordan Ross BELFORT
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published