Mary Reafsnyder
The creditors of Silver Oak Leasing, the high-end auto leasing company that was forced into bankruptcy amid accusations of fraud, are not going quietly. They’ve hired the former top FBI agent in Orange County to discover what happened to the $13 million that vanished from Silver Oak’s books before it collapsed.
Bankruptcy trustee David Hahn has asserted in court papers that former Silver Oak principal Mary Reafsnyder, the wife of a grandson of amusement park pioneer Walter Knott, may have orchestrated a Ponzi scheme. Reafsnyder has denied wrongdoing.
Among those who say they lost money in Silver Oak: her sister-in-law, Knott granddaughter Maureen Sloan. Sloan, who said she lost $10.5 million and was forced to sell her Newport Coast mansion, is paying investigator Gary K. Morley‘s $165-per-hour fee.
Silver Oak sold investments in luxury auto leases to a small circle of people, several of whom were either relatives of friends of the late Virginia Knott Bender, daughter of Knott’s Berry Farm founders Walter and Cordelia Knott.
Formed in 2006, Silver Oak purportedly bought and then leased luxury cars, including Aston Martins, Jaguars and Lamborghinis. But when it filed bankruptcy it listed no cars among its assets.
Silver Oak continued raising funds through late 2011, even though it apparently had stopped operations, Hahn wrote in court documents. Reafsnyder and her partner, former banker Albert Neira, “paid themselves high salaries and consulting fees and received other benefits from the debtor (Silver Oak) including the use and/or ownership of several high-end vehicles.”
Read More: http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2012/10/16/knott-heirs-go-hunting-for-fraud/163188/
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