On Sept. 22 U.S. District Judge Rebecca Doherty halted her Sept. 15 seizure and sale order involving Lafayette businessman Mike Moreno’s Baton Rouge and New Iberia properties pending a hearing on a motion for arbitration, Baton Rouge’s Daily Report and The Advocate both reported last week.
The Baton Rouge land is part of Moreno’s proposed River District mixed-use development along Nicholson Drive, and the Port of Iberia property once housed Dynamic Industries, a company Moreno is no longer involved in running.
Doherty's Sept. 15 order of seizure and sale resulted from Goldman Sachs Bank USA's request for foreclosure on the properties, which was used as collateral on a $52 million loan to Moreno. In July the New York-based bank sued Moreno, his wife Tiffany and a number of his various entities for defaulting on a loan he took out in Oct. 11, 2013, just two weeks before his fracking company, Green Field Energy Services, went belly-up and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Green Field was liquidated in mid-2014 (Moreno is being sued for $230 million by the liquidating trustee for allegedly stripping assets from the company in the months leading up to its bankruptcy).
As ABiz first reported, Doherty had ordered U.S. marshals in both cities to take control of the property and sell it to the highest bidder to satisfy Moreno’s debt to Goldman Sachs Bank.
The auction date had not been set when Doherty halted the order seven days later, based on an arbitration request from Moreno.
The Advocate reports that the motion to compel arbitration is expected to be heard Nov. 20.