Judge approves Preds purchase agreement
A San Francisco bankruptcy court on Friday approved the sale of disgraced Nashville Predators part-owner William “Boots” Del Biaggio’s stake in the team.
However, the team’s remaining owners have not yet finalized other matters necessary to close the deal — and an important deadline is approaching quickly.
The Predators' ownership group plans to buy Del Biaggio’s 27 percent stake in the team, which is valued at $25 million, for $15.2 million. But the deal is conditioned on a Aug. 12 closing so that the ownership group can make a $412,969 interest payment to CIT Lending Services Corp., the team’s lender, that is due Aug. 13 and otherwise would be owed by Del Biaggio’s estate.
Predators Senior Vice President Gerry Helper said he was pleased with today’s ruling because it “moved the process forward” but that “there’s other steps still to go.” Among those steps is NHL approval of the sale.
Del Biaggio, a venture capitalist and former co-owner of the San Jose Sharks, was sentenced in September to eight years in prison and ordered to pay more than $67.4 million in restitution for misappropriating funds from individual investors he advised.
Del Biaggio was charged with cheating investors out of about $100 million, and investigators said he falsified documents so it would look like he owned securities that belonged to others.
In February Del Biaggio pleaded guilty to charges that he used the money to pay off gambling debts and live lavishly, including buying a stake in the Predators.