A legal dispute between prominent Oakland real estate investor Tom Henderson and one of his business partners has boiled over, with an Alameda County Superior Court judge transferring control of the Tribune Tower and three other Oakland properties to a court-appointed receiver, the East Bay Times reported.
The judge acted on the request of Allan Young, Henderson’s former business partner in CallSocket, a call center business inside the Tribune Tower where about 175 employees made an estimated 100,000 calls per day on behalf of clients including Deutsche Bank and the University of Phoenix.
Young has accused Henderson of siphoning off millions of dollars intended to create local jobs. He reportedly asked the judge to transfer control of the properties after Henderson recently flipped the four-story I. Magnin building at 2001 Broadway Street, selling it for nearly $19.5 million — more than double what he paid for it three years earlier.
Young was reportedly concerned that Henderson would sell other properties while the two are entangled in a bitter legal dispute.
In a lawsuit filed in August 2015, Young claimed that Henderson used funds, which were primarily raised from Chinese investors under the EB-5 foreign investment program, for personal use and buying real estate. The complaint also names Henderson's sons, Matthew and Michael, as defendants.
CallSocket and its affiliates bought the Tribune Tower at 409 13th St., as well as 517 17th St., 1740 Broadway and 2001 Broadway in Oakland.
Court-appointed receiver Susan Ueker now has total control of the nine separate CallSocket corporate entities set up by Henderson, the Times reported. That includes any associated bank accounts, rent rolls and the four prominent Oakland properties.
In a written statement given to the East Bay Times, Henderson said he will seek to remove Ueker or diminish her authority at a hearing this Thursday. "We are challenging the relevancy and the scope of the receivership ... and we'll see what changes result from that hearing," he wrote.
The judge’s order is not related to any insolvency or bankruptcy, Henderson said.