Paul Habibi, CPA 149 South Barrington Avenue, Suite 705 Los Angeles, CA 90049 Telephone: (424) 256-6230 E-Mail: [email protected]
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Paul Habibi, CPA 149 South Barrington Avenue, Suite 705 Los Angeles, CA 90049 Telephone: (424) 256-6230 E-mail: [email protected] SUMMARY PROFILE Continuing Lecturer at UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management and Lecturer in Law at UCLA School of Law, and successful real estate investor, developer, broker and Certified Public Accountant. Extensive experience as public speaker, consultant and Board member. Expert witness in litigation and regulatory matters, including numerous admissions in jury trials, bench trials and arbitration. EXPERT WITNESS IN LITIGATION Grayslake Advisors, LLC, Los Angeles, CA and New York, NY 2008-Present Principal and Founder • Provide expert testimony in matters related to real estate, securities, banking, technology, finance, valuation, economics, accounting, taxation, and business combinations (see also www.GrayslakeAdvisors.com) • Representative matters include: Art Cohen v. Donald J. Trump Retained by Plaintiff Plaintiff’s Counsel: Robbins, Geller, Rudman & Dowd LLP United States District Court, Southern District of California, Case No. 13-cv-2519-GPC-WVG Retained by plaintiff in a civil RICO class action alleging a fraudulent scheme, Trump University, was employed by defendant Donald J. Trump to sell real estate seminars and mislead student-victims; served as real estate education expert and opined that the Trump University curriculum provided students with no pedagogical value; case settled for $25 million soon after the 2016 U.S. Presidential election Shasha v. Malkin Retained by Defendant Defendant’s Counsel: Dewey, Pegno & Kramarsky LLP American Arbitration Association Case No. 01-14-0001-6986 Retained by the Malkin family and related entities in a class action alleging the fraudulent and coerced conversion of ownership interests in the Empire State Building through a multi-billion dollar IPO that created Empire State Realty Trust, Inc., a publicly-traded REIT (NYSE: ESRT). Valued the various entities that comprise the Empire State Building and its consolidation into ESRT; testified in arbitration Apartment Investment and Management Company (AIMCO) v. Airbnb, Inc., et al. (multiple cases) Retained by Defendant Defendant’s Counsel: Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP (1) La Park La Brea A, LLC, et al. v. Airbnb, Inc., et al.: United States District Court, Central District of California, Case No. 2:17-cv-04887-DMG 1 (2) Bay Parc Plaza Apartments, L.P., et al. v. Airbnb, Inc., et al.: Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, Case No. 2017-003624-CA-01 Retained by Airbnb, Inc. in its defense of allegations by subsidiaries of AIMCO, a publicly traded REIT (NYSE: AIV), of systematic misappropriation and abuse of private property rights and intentional interference with landlord-tenant contracts In re American Realty Capital Properties, Inc. Litigation Retained by Defendants Defendants’ Counsel: Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick PLLC United States District Court, Southern District of New York, Case No. 1:15-mc-00040-AKH Retained by defendants Nicholas S. Schorsch and AR Capital LLC in class action securities litigation alleging violations of 1933 and 1934 Acts, including issuance of materially false and misleading financial statements and failure to exercise due diligence that artificially inflated the value of American Realty Capital Properties (NASDAQ: ARCP) securities H&N Management Group, Inc. v. Couch, et al. Retained by Defendants Defendants’ Counsel: Ropes & Gray LLP and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP In the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, C.A. No. 12847-VCMR Retained by certain directors and officers of a mortgage REIT (NASDAQ: AGNC) in a derivative action alleging a conflict of interest that led a related-party equity firm to unjustifiably extract over $100 million in annual management fees from the REIT H&N Management Group, Inc. v. Ares Capital Corporation, et al. Retained by Defendants Defendants’ Counsel: Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP In the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, C.A. No. 12847-VCMR Retained by Ares Capital Corporation in a derivative action alleging aiding and abetting of certain directors and officers to breach their duties, leading to the unlawful extraction of hundreds of millions of dollars from a REIT (NASDAQ: AGNC) for the benefit of a related-party private equity firm HotelsAB Green, LLC v. Reignwood Europe Holdings SARL Retained by Plaintiff Plaintiff’s Counsel: Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Lupkin PLLC United States District Court, Southern District of New York, Case No. 1:17-cv-08776-JGK-DCF Retained by celebrity hotelier Andre Balazs and affiliates in a breach of contract action arising from Reignwood’s refusal to honor the terms of a binding joint venture agreement related to the acquisition and financing of New York’s iconic High Line Building, which currently houses The Standard Hotel Fair, et al. v. SunAmerica Affordable Housing Partners, Inc., et al. Retained by Defendant Defendant’s Counsel: O’Melveny & Myers LLP JAMS Arbitration Case No. 1220057137 2 Retained by American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) in its defense of allegations by its former executives of breach of fiduciary duty arising from the cessation of distribution payments owed pursuant to the terms of numerous participant limited partnership agreements; testified in arbitration Bersin Properties, LLC v. Nomura Credit & Capital, Inc. and NCCMI, Inc. Retained by Defendant Defendant’s Counsel: Greenberg Traurig LLP Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, Index No. 452630/2014 Retained by subsidiaries of Nomura Holdings, Inc. in their defense against allegations of breach of contract in connection with a loan agreement that made available to the plaintiff up to $135 million, the proceeds of which were to be used to acquire, renovate and re-lease Medley Centre, an 830,000 square foot shopping mall in Rochester, New York; served as damages rebuttal expert Toll Brothers, Inc. v. SoCal Gas Retained by Plaintiff Plaintiff’s Counsel: Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP Superior Court, State of California, County of Los Angeles, Case No. BC674622 Retained by publicly-traded home builder Toll Brothers, Inc. (NYSE: TOL) in a matter alleging economic damages to multiple single-family residential development projects in Porter Ranch, California, as a result of the highly-publicized Aliso Canyon gas leak, the largest natural gas leak in U.S. history; determined economic damages United States of America v. Lawrence “Lee” Loomis, et al. Retained by Plaintiff Plaintiff’s Counsel: United States Attorney’s Office United States District Court, Eastern District of California, Case No. 2:12-CR-00315-JAM Retained by the United States Attorney’s Office and Federal Bureau of Investigation in a criminal case involving an alleged mortgage fraud conspiracy and large-scale Ponzi scheme in Northern California that victimized more than 100 people and caused more than $7 million of losses related to the sale of shares in a real estate investment program called the Naras Funds; defendant pleaded guilty to wire fraud and sentenced to 12 years in federal prison United States Securities and Exchange Commission v. Loomis Wealth Solutions, et al. Retained by Plaintiff Plaintiff’s Counsel: United States Securities and Exchange Commission United States District Court, Eastern District of California, Case No. S-10-458 KJM KJN Retained by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a matter involving fraud and misappropriation of funds by a fund manager who syndicated capital for the origination of residential junior mortgages; evaluated 120 home equity lines of credit and appraisals, noting that none of the properties had a recorded deed of trust, and that even if they had, the loan-to-value ratios would have exceeded fund maximums; opined on the inadequacy of investor guaranties; the Court granted SEC’s motion for summary judgment, with numerous citations of SEC expert Paul Habibi’s analysis United States Securities and Exchange Commission v. James Thomas Bramlette, et al. Retained by Plaintiff Plaintiff’s Counsel: United States Securities and Exchange Commission United States District Court, District of Utah, Central Division, Case No. 2:18-cv-00761-PMW 3 Retained by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a matter involving misrepresentations to investors, the omission of material information, and perpetration of a fraudulent scheme involving the Melrose Resort, a decrepit property located on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina In the Matter of J.S. Oliver Capital Management, L.P., et al. Retained by Plaintiff Plaintiff’s Counsel: United States Securities and Exchange Commission United States Securities and Exchange Commission Administrative Proceeding File No. 3-15446 Retained by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in administrative proceedings involving misconduct by a registered investment adviser and its executives for engaging in two distinct schemes: fraudulent trade allocation by “cherry-picking” favorable trades to affiliated hedge fund clients to the detriment of other, unfavored client accounts, and misusing client commission credits called “soft dollars” Central States, Southeast & Southwest Areas Health and Welfare Plan Retained by Plaintiff Plaintiff’s Counsel: Office of the Solicitor, United States Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration (ESBA) Case No. 50-033570(48) Retained by the United States