Corali Lopez-Castro, Partner, Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton, Coral Gables. Courtesy photo

BANKRUPTCY

Corali Lopez-Castro

Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton

A Miami businessman from a prominent family that owned Ecuador's fourth largest bank before its failure faced a $600 million Bahamian judgment. But he was accused in his Chapter 7 bankruptcy case of hiding assets in a purported family foundation founded in Panama in 2003 and blocking recovery attempts since then.

Cori Lopez-Castro and her team dug in, literally and figuratively, finding thousands of pages and hundreds of exhibits to prove their case, which she considered the most complex of her career.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurel Isicoff presided over a 10-week trial and ruled in July that Leonidas Ortega Trujillo, rather than his children, was the equitable owner of the foundation and the assets of the foundation and related companies should be surrendered.

Describe a key piece of testimony, evidence, ruling or order in your case and how it influenced the outcome: In the adversary proceeding trial of Angueira, Trustee v. Ortega, the issue was whether the debtor was the true beneficiary of a Panamanian foundation and other related entities, in which case these entities' assets would be part of the bankruptcy estate and administered for the benefit of creditors.

While the debtor defended on the grounds that he was not the beneficiary or owner, but instead his children were the beneficiaries and owners, Lopez-Castro and her team successfully introduced critical evidence including the debtor's testimony, complex agreements, tax returns and the conflicting testimony of the debtor's children to establish that the debtor in fact received $2.8 million from the entities between 2010 and 2015.

Lopez-Castro and her team were also able to show that the debtor's children received no benefits from the foundation. Based on this and other evidence, the court entered an extensive memorandum opinion finding that the debtor was the true beneficiary of the foundation and its related entities because he owned and controlled their assets. Her co-counsel at K&L Gates, Michael de Marco and Jeff Kucera, representing the major creditor, were also critical to the victory.