Irving H. Picard v. Saul B. Katz et al

Filing 90

DECLARATION of DANA M. SESHENS in Support re: 79 MOTION for Summary Judgment.. Document filed by Charles 15 Associates, Charles 15 LLC, Charles Sterling LLC, Charles Sterling Sub LLC, College Place Enterprises LLC, Coney Island Baseball Holding Company LLC, Estate of Leonard Schreier, FFB Aviation LLC, FS Company LLC, Fred Wilpon Family Trust, Arthur Friedman, Ruth Friedman, Iris J. Katz and Saul B. Katz Family Foundation, Inc., Judy and Fred Wilpon Family Foundation, Inc., Amy Beth Katz, David Katz, Dayle Katz, Gregory Katz, Howard Katz, Iris Katz, 157 J.E.S. LLC, Air Sterling LLC, BAS Aircraft LLC, Jason Bacher, Bon Mick Family Partners LP, Bon-Mick, Inc., Brooklyn Baseball Company LLC, C.D.S. Corp., Michael Katz, Saul B. Katz, Todd Katz, Katz 2002 Descendants' Trust, Heather Katz Knopf, Natalie Katz O'Brien, Mets II LLC, Mets Limited Partnership, Mets One LLC, Mets Partners, Inc., Minor 1 (REDACTED), Minor 2 (REDACTED), L. Thomas Osterman, Phyllis Rebell Osterman, Realty Associates Madoff II, Red Valley Partners, Robbinsville Park LLC, Ruskin Garden Apartments LLC, Saul B. Katz Family Trust, Michael Schreier, Deyva Schreier Arthur, See Holdco LLC, See Holdings I, See Holdings II, Sterling 10 LLC, Sterling 15C LLC, Sterling 20 LLC, Sterling Acquisitions LLC, Sterling American Advisors II LP, Sterling American Property III LP, Sterling American Property IV LP, Sterling American Property V LP, Sterling Brunswick Corporation, Sterling Brunswick Seven LLC, Sterling Dist Properties LLC, Sterling Equities, Sterling Equities Associates, Sterling Equities Investors, Sterling Heritage LLC, Sterling Internal V LLC, Sterling Jet II Ltd., Sterling Jet Ltd., Sterling Mets Associates, Sterling Mets Associates II, Sterling Mets LP, Sterling Pathogenesis Company, Sterling Third Associates, Sterling Thirty Venture LLC, Sterling Tracing LLC, Sterling Twenty Five LLC, Sterling VC IV LLC, Sterling VC V LLC, Edward M. Tepper, Elise C. Tepper, Jacqueline G. Tepper, Marvin B. Tepper, Valley Harbor Associates, Kimberly Wachtler, Philip Wachtler, Bruce N. Wilpon, Daniel Wilpon, Debra Wilpon, Fred Wilpon, Jeffrey Wilpon, Jessica Wilpon, Judith Wilpon, Richard Wilpon, Scott Wilpon, Valerie Wilpon, Wilpon 2002 Descendants' Trust, Robin Wilpon Wachtler. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit A, # 2 Exhibit B, # 3 Exhibit C PART 1, # 4 Exhibit C PART 2, # 5 Exhibit D, # 6 Exhibit E, # 7 Exhibit F, # 8 Exhibit G, # 9 Exhibit H, # 10 Exhibit I, # 11 Exhibit J, # 12 Exhibit K, # 13 Exhibit L, # 14 Exhibit M, # 15 Exhibit N, # 16 Exhibit O, # 17 Exhibit P, # 18 Exhibit Q, # 19 Exhibit R, # 20 Exhibit S, # 21 Exhibit T, # 22 Exhibit U, # 23 Exhibit V, # 24 Exhibit W, # 25 Exhibit X, # 26 Exhibit Y, # 27 Exhibit Z, # 28 Exhibit AA)(Seshens, Dana)

EXHIBIT O

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C O N F I D E N T I A L

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
11-CV-03605(JSR)(HBP)

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IRVING H. PICARD, Trustee for
the Liquidation of Bernard L.
Madoff Investment Securities LLC,

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Videotaped
Deposition of:

Plaintiff,
v.

MARK PESKIN

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SAUL B. KATZ, et al.,
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Defendants.
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TRANSCRIPT of testimony as taken by and before

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MONIQUE VOUTHOURIS, Certified Court Reporter, RPR,

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CRR and Notary Public of the States of New York and

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New Jersey, at the offices of Baker & Hostetler, 45

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Rockefeller Plaza, New York, New York, on Thursday,

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December 29, 2011, commencing at 9:30 a.m.

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PICARD v. KATZ, et al.

CONFIDENTIAL

MARK PESKIN 12/29/11
87

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Sterling's remaining investments --"

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I'm sorry.

The first bullet point

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down from there, "The loss of the Madoff assets has

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negatively impacted liquidity, as relatively little

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of the remaining assets by design are in liquid

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securities."

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A.
Q.
A.

Do you see that?
Yes, I do.
What does that mean?
We had different silos of assets.

We

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had asset allocation models.

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assets, which is a long-term asset; our SNY and Mets

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assets are long-term assets.

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other end of the spectrum we had more-liquid assets,

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and one of those were our Madoff investments as well

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as our investment in SSP, Sterling Stamos Partners;

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which within Sterling Stamos we had longer-term and

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shorter-term assets, less liquidity, more liquidity.

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So we had real estate

And on the -- so on the

So all that meant was, taking the

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first part of the bullet point, that -- that despite

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the recent loss of Madoff assets, true, we had a lot

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of other investments that we still had value in, but

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unfortunately, we lost quite a bit of our liquidity,

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our shorter-term assets.

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Q.

What does it mean in this bullet point

"by design"?
BENDISH REPORTING, INC.
877.404.2193

PICARD v. KATZ, et al.

CONFIDENTIAL

MARK PESKIN 12/29/11
112

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if we took it out of this account and then put it

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into our main account, possibly.

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whether an actual dollar came from this.

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went to a player.

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main accounts and then to our payroll accounts.

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there is no differentiation; cash is cash, it's all

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fungible.

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Q.

But I don't know
It never

It would have to go through our
So

So it appears that at the time of this

e-mail, February 8th -- I'm sorry, February 5th,

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2008, there was no money or near to no money left in

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this account.

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A.
Q.

Correct?
That's what he says.
Okay.

Do you know what the money from

that account was used for?
A.

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requirements.

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Q.

I would assume general operating

Okay.

Mr. Labita's e-mail indicates

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that the self-insurance fund was used when the Mets

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were scrambling for cash.

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MS. WAGNER:
Q.

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What does that mean?
Objection.

Or what do you understand that to mean?
MS. WAGNER:

A.

Objection.

You have to understand the cycle of

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cash in a baseball team.

You start off very cash

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rich in your January, February, March time frame
BENDISH REPORTING, INC.
877.404.2193

PICARD v. KATZ, et al.

CONFIDENTIAL

MARK PESKIN 12/29/11
113

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because you sell tickets to the season, for the

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season.

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team starts, you use that money.

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it's -- because of additional ticket sales and

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concession sales and parking and advertising, suite

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sales and et cetera.

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expenses, basically the payroll expense, running the

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stadium and paying the players, which dissipates all

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those funds.

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And then come April 1st when the baseball
It's augmented,

But you have your major

So that by the time August starts

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coming around, unless you are a spectacular team and

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winning and headed for the Series, you're going to

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start running short of cash.

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it's the cycle every year.

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cycle until about September, October, when you start

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selling ticket sales for the following year, and then

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you start ramping up all over again.

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continuous cycle.

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It happens, it's -And you go through that

So it's a

So what he was alluding to is when

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we -- when we're scrambling for cash is usually in

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that August, September, October time frame.

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Q.

Okay.

Is it a fair statement that

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BLMIS accounts were used to fund the Mets operating

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expenses?

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MS. WAGNER:

Objection.

BENDISH REPORTING, INC.
877.404.2193