U.S. Bankruptcy Court Authorizes Sales of NJ Affordable Homes Corp. Real
Approximately 340 properties to be sold at absolute auction
NEW YORK — Sheldon Good & Company Auctions NorthEast, (www.sheldongood.com) the nation’s premiere auction and brokerage company, in a joint venture with DJM Realty, a national real estate disposition firm based in Melville, New York, has been retained by Charles M. Forman, the chapter 7 trustee appointed for NJ Affordable Homes Corp. (NJAH) to sell at auction 340 properties owned and controlled by NJAH. The auction venue is being announced for September 29th, 30th and October 1st at the Meadowlands Convention Center in Secaucus, NJ.
Mr. Forman, of the law firm of Forman, Holt & Eliades, LLC, said: “The auction sale of the NJAH portfolio is the most efficient and cost-effective method of generating a substantial pool of funds from which those who were hurt by this massive fraud can be compensated.”
Mr. Forman added: “Private investors, conventional lenders, other parties and the community as a whole have been victimized by the scheme. We believe that the auction method devised by this real estate team will result in the expeditious sale of these properties thereby ultimately benefiting all concerned, including the investors, lenders, tenants and their neighborhoods.”
Steven L. Good, Chairman and CEO of Sheldon Good & Company Auctions, Inc. said: ”We appreciate the confidence placed in us and in DJM Realty by the trustee and the court. Our auction will be an important step forward in correcting the alleged injustices conducted by the debtor.”
Andrew Graiser, Co-CEO and Founder of DJM Realty, said: “We were brought in based on our experience in helping troubled companies fund operating cash so as to allow for an orderly disposition of the portfolio properties. We teamed up with Sheldon Good & Company because we felt that they were by far the most experienced auction company to handle a portfolio of properties this size.”
Jeffrey Hubbard, Executive Managing Director for Sheldon Good & Company Auctions NorthEast, LLC, said: “This will be the largest residential auction thus far to be conducted in New Jersey, and most likely, in the United States. This auction will have something for everyone: the builder, homeowner, developer and investor. The portfolio of properties includes 80 single-family homes, 78 two-family homes, 96 three-family homes, 19 four-family homes, 2 six-family residences, 57 parcels of land, and 8 commercial properties. This extensive portfolio includes property in every county in New Jersey except two. 195 properties are located in the Essex County area.”
Mr. Hubbard said that all properties would be sold absolute regardless of price, free and clear of liens, subject to the approval of the United States Bankruptcy Court District of New Jersey presiding over NJAH’s bankruptcy case.
Background: On September 12, 2005, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission sought and obtained from the District Court a temporary restraining order that, among other things, froze the assets of NJ Affordable Homes Corp. and Wayne Puff and appointed a temporary receiver over the assets of NJAH.
The SEC alleged that “from at least 1999 to the present, the defendants sold, in unregistered offerings, at least $40 million in notes to more than 490 investors located throughout the United States in connection with their participation in a Ponzi scheme.”
The District Court appointed Nicholas H. Politan, a former federal judge, as the receiver for NJAH. On November 17, 2005, the court authorized the receiver to file a chapter 7 petition under the Bankruptcy Code on behalf of NJAH. Mr. Forman was then appointed by the United States Trustees Office, a branch of the United States Department of Justice, as the chapter 7 Trustee for NJAH’s bankruptcy estate. The United States Bankruptcy Court granted the Trustee’s motion to sell all 340 properties owned and controlled by NJAH in a real estate auction to be conduced by Sheldon Good & Company Auctions NorthEast in conjunction with DJM Realty.