CAUSE NO. 2010-04275
Hod Gil § IN THE district
COURT
§
VS. §
§
Yuval Ran and § 125th judicial
district
d.f.r.a.a.m., LLC §
§
vs. §
§
Verno (USA),
L.P., Chesny Estates, §
Ltd., jackob maimon, haim tsuff, §
and Amir Sanker § HARRIS
COUNTY , TEXAS
______________________________________________________________________________
DEFENDANT’S ORIGINAL ANSWER, COUNTER-PLAINTIFF’S ORIGINAL
COUNTERCLAIM, Original Cross Claim AND RULE 194 REQUESTS FOR DISCLOSURE
TO
THE HONOrable judge of said court:
COMES NOW, Yuval Ran,
Defendant/Counter-Plaintiff (hereinafter referred to as “Ran") in the above-entitled
matter, by and through his attorneys of record, Terry W. Yates &
Associates, and files his Original Answer to Plaintiff’s First Amended Original
Verified Petition. Ran further files his Original
Counterclaim against Hod Gil (hereinafter referred to as “GIL"), and in support thereof
would show unto the Court as follows:
ORIGINAL ANSWER
I. General Denial
1.1 Ran generally denies the allegations
contained in Plaintiff’s First Amended Original Verified Petition pursuant to
Rule 92 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, and demands strict proof thereof
as is required by the constitution and laws of the State of Texas .
ORIGINAL COUNTERCLAIM and Cross Claim
II. Discovery Control Plan
2.1 Counter-Plaintiff
intends to conduct discovery under Level 3, pursuant to Tex. R. Civ. P. 190.3.
III. Parties
3.1
Counter-Plaintiff Yuval Ran is a resident of Harris
County, Texas.
3.2 Counter-Defendant, Hod Gil
(hereinafter referred to as “GIL”), is an individual with a Netherlands
citizenship,, but he has resided in the following places on the following
dates: in Israel from 1960-1985 while having an Israeli citizenship and an
Israeli residency; from 1985-2006 in Holland while having a Dutch citizenship
and a Dutch residency (his Israeli citizenship and residency were revoked in
2006); from January 2006 – December 2008 in 117 Pamellia Drive, Bellaire, Texas
77401; and in Israel on 1 Habrecha Street, Ra’anana, from January 2009 until today. Since April
2006, Gil revoked his own Dutch residency, so that today he has NO RESIDENCY.
Gil revoked his Dutch residency so that he will be “judgment-proof”, and will
not be able to be served. Counter-Defendant has already appeared in this
cause by his original petition, and will be served under TRCP 21a by serving
their attorney of record. It should be noted that in a different lawsuit in the
amount of hundreds of millions of dollars against Gil, the plaintiffs have not
been able to “find” Gil and serve him since 2004. Gil is still escaping and evading being served.
3.3 Cross-Defendant Verno (USA), L.P. may be served with process
by serving its registered agent for service of process, Ray Schackelford at 1406 Southmore Boulevard , Houston , Texas 77004
3.4 Cross-Defendant Chesny Estates, Ltd. is
the parent company of Verno (USA), L.P. and may be served with process by
serving its registered agent for service of process, Ray Schackelford at 1406 Southmore Boulevard , Houston , Texas 77004
3.5 Cross-Defendant Jackob Maimon is an
Israeli Resident, but in May 2010 he declared to the media in Israel that on June 15 he would be leaving Israel , resigning from all of his positions in
the JOEL/ Equital group, and moving to Germany Israel Houston , Texas
77027 99 N Post Oak Lane, Apt. 5402 Houston ,
Texas 77024
3.6 Cross-Defendant Haim Tsuff is a Netherlands resident and may be served with
process at his office at Isramco Inc. located at 2425 W. Loop South Suite 810, Houston , Texas
77027 99 N Post Oak Lane, Apt. 5402 Houston ,
Texas 77024
3.7 Cross-Defendant Amir Sanker is a resident
of Harris County, Texas and may be served with process at his residence at
Isramco Corporate Apartments located at 99
N. Post Oak Lane, Apt. 5402 Houston ,
Texas 77024
IV. Venue and Jurisdiction
4.1 Venue is proper in Harris County, Texas
pursuant to Sec. 15.002 of the Texas Civil Practices & Remedies Code, as
all of the events that form this cause of action occurred in Harris County,
Texas.
4.2 The Court has jurisdiction over the
subject matter because the amount in controversy is within the jurisdictional
limits of this Court.
V. Facts
In 1995, Yuval Ran, a notable
businessman and a major shareholder of Israel Credit Line (“Kavei Ashrai”) took
control of the J.O.E.L. (Jerusalem Oil
Exploration Ltd.)/EQUITAL group
(From
here on referred to as J.O.E.L.), One of the biggest oil and gas conglomerate
in Israel .
It should be noted that the group control real-estate and oil and gas
properties that estimates in more then 20 BILLION US DOLLARS (full descriptions
of the group assets in attachment A). In the same year, a minor shareholder of
J.O.E.L., Jackob Maimon (from here on referred to as “Maimon”), filed a lawsuit
against Israel Credit Line claiming that the deal of the purchase of J.O.E.L.
by Israel Credit Line was illegitimate. In this lawsuit’s following settlement,
Maimon agreed to purchase 50 percent of J.O.E.L. from Israel Credit Line;
however, Maimon registered the stocks under the pseudonym of Mr. Rober Arkens,
who is not a real buyer but a straw person for Maimon’s. Maimon’s history of
using alter egos, pseudonyms, aliases and straw persons to complete business
deals would reoccur in all of Maimon’s future transactions. (A detail
description of some of those transactions is in attachments B (Ran Vs. Tsuff),
and C (Lapiner Vs. Tsuff)
Arkens
was unaware of what he was supposedly buying, that he did not have the funds to
finance the purchase, and that with Ran’s aid, Maimon financed the entire deal
through the different companies that are managed and owned by his different
straw people.
1996
was a year that marked one of the biggest crashes of Israel ’s money markets and a huge sub
prime crisis. As a repercussion, Israel Credit Line started suffering major
fiscal losses. Maimon, now a partial owner of J.O.E.L, introduced to Israel
Credit Line his two newest alter egos: Haim Tsuff and Hod Gil. Together, Tsuff
and Maimon received Ran’s help, and started to manage Israel Credit Line. Tsuff
and Maimon’s final target was to eventually obtain full control and ownership
of the J.O.E.L. group. In order to achieve this plan, Tsuff and Maimon acted
directly and indirectly, and did whatever they could in order to get all Israel
Credit Line stock into the J.O.E.L. group.
In
1997, Israel Credit Line tanked. Before its final crash, it sold the Maimon
group its remaining stocks in the J.O.E.L. group. At this time, Yuval Ran left Israel and moved to the United States .
In
1998, a receiver was nominated to Israel Credit Line. The receiver filed a 500
million shekel (134.7 million USD) lawsuit against Maimon, Tsuff, Gil, Ran, and
38 others. The receiver’s main argument was that the Maimon group had purchased
the control of the J.O.E.L. Group for an
unreasonably low price, and that the transaction was fraudulent and should be void.
In
1997 and 1998, Tsuff and Maimon established an American/ Texan company by the
name of Verno USA Inc. This company is a fully owned subsidiary of Verno
Holland, which is owned by Tsuff and Maimon.
Ran was nominated as the president of the company.
In
2000, Maimon and Tsuff decided to activate Verno USA in the same way that they
activated other fully owned subsidiaries of Verno Holland. The company
initiates dealing in furniture and art. Yuval Ran is the president of the
company, and funds are constantly diverted from Holland to the U.S. Company and back. Verno
Holland owns One hundred percent of Verno USA .
From
the year 2000 through 2006, the Maimon group and Ran communicated on a daily
basis; Ran, Tsuff, and Maimon also communicated daily. The chain of command, or
hierarchy, at this time positioned Maimon at the top, followed by Tsuff, who
was followed by Gil. Maimon was the undisputed boss; Tsuff and Gil were straw persons
who worked for Maimon. The ownership on companies and assets in the Maimon
group is changing between Gil,Tsuff ,Maimon and others as a part of a plan to
invad taxes, hide undisclosed insiders deal and create “judgment proof”
entities.
During
the years of 2006-2008, both the Tax Authority of Holland and the Illegal
Foreign Employee Authority of Holland conducted investigations during this
investigations Gil and Tsuff got arrested; additionally, Israel Credit Line’s
receiver’s litigation in Israel
progressed. As a result of these three events, Hod Gil is sent from Holland to live in the United
States and to manage Verno USA
together with Ran as the representative of the shareholders of Verno Holland,
which owns Verno USA .
Furthermore, Gil brought with him a manager named Amir Sanker, who, according
to Sanker, has worked with the Maimon group since 2003.
During
the previous thirteen years (1997-2010), Verno USA
had been a fully owned subsidiary of Verno Holland; Verno Holland is actually a
foreign DBA (“Doing Business As”) to a BVI (British Virgin
Islands ) company – but suspiciously, this BVI Company transforms
into a different company every three to four years. The first BVI Company was
called Zenith Holding Ltd; the second was called Blenfield XXII; the third was
known as Chesny Estates Ltd. The real owner of those BVI companies is the
bearer of the shares, and the Maimon group uses this fact to change the
documented owners of the companies at their will.
In
2008, the Israeli Court
declared a statute of limitations on Israel credit lines receiver’s
lawsuit. Immediately after, Gil, the
owner and representative of the Verno Holland group, announced to Ran that he
was planning on leaving the United States
(Bellaire , Texas )
for Ra’anana, Israel .
Gil, however, claimed that he was the owner of Verno USA ; the fully owned subsidiary of
Verno Holland (which is a DBA of Chesney Estates Ltd) and that he was the owner
of Chesny Estates. It should be noted that throughout the years, the business
relationship was strictly and directly between Ran and Tsuff only; Gil was only
Tsuff’s straw person. Gil never did any significant business on his own; he was
inferior to Tsuff, and he always completely and absolutely followed Tsuff’s
orders and instructions.
With
the recession in the United States
in full swing, the managers and the owners of Verno USA
made a decision to close down the “Brandon ’s”
furniture stores and to instead open DFM (Designers’ Furniture Market) as a
replacement. Gil, Tsuff, Maimon, and Ran made this decision. Tsuff, who must
now frequently visit the United States (his representative, Gil, has left), is
familiar with all of these details, just as he has been in the past twelve
years as a result of communicating with Ran.
In
2009/ 2010, several concurrent events took place simultaneously:
(1) The Israel Supreme Court reversed its previous statute of limitations
decision, and brought back Israel Credit Line’s receiver to the table.
(2) Tsuff and Maimon’s relationship with Ran became tense and strained.
Tsuff and Maimon used direct threats to attempt to prevent Ran from revealing
his private knowledge regarding Tsuff and Maimon’s businesses around the world.
Ran’s private knowledge endangered and still endangers the continuation of
Tsuff and Maimon’s deceptive and fraudulent business operations.
(3) A big article in the Israeli press described several big, undisclosed
insiders’ deals performed by Maimon, Tsuff, and Gil. This article claimed that
Gil and Chensy Estates did several deals with the J.O.E.L. group, which is
owned by Tsuff and Maimon, without disclosing their tight relationship, and
without disclosing that Gil and Tsuff are Maimon’s aliases (Attachment D
includes the article and its translation).
(4) A shareholders’ class action
investigation was declared on Isramco Inc (ISRL) in the United States .
(5) Ran filed a derivative suit on behalf of Isramco Inc. against Tsuff,
Maimon, and the board of directors of Isramco describing several undisclosed
insider’s deals (Attachment B consists of the derivative suit, Ran vs. Tsuff).
(6) Another shareholder filed a second derivative suit against Tsuff and
Maimon describing illegal insider’s deals and including and exposing further
details of Tsuff and Maimon’s deceptive deals (Attachment C consists of the
second derivative suit, Lapiner v. Tsuff).
(7) Israel Credit Line’s receiver got a default judgment against Tsuff. (This
receiver had been trying to serve Tsuff since 2004).This judgment ruled that
Tsuff would have to give back all of his shares in the Equital/ J.O.E.L Group
to Israel Credit Line. Attached is the judgment against Haim Tsuff.
(8) Israel Credit Line’s receiver got a default judgment against Hod Gil
for 9,000,000 (9 million) NIS .
(9) Tsuff tried to turn the default judgments against him, claiming that
he never got served. (This is one of the most famous ligitations in Israel regarding one of Israel ’s largest real estate development
companies and one of Israel ’s
largest oil and gas companies—Tsuff is the CEO of ALL of these companies, and
he claims that he was unaware of the litigation and never received service.)
(10) Hod Gil tried to turn the default judgment against him, claiming he
never got served, never heard about the trial, has not resided in Israel in the past 25 years, and lives in Holland today with his
wife and kids (these claims are completely false).
In
order to prevent the possibility that Ran would go back to Israel at this time,
and therefore reveal his private knowledge about Tsuff, Maimon, and Gil’s
fraudulent, deceptive, and illegal activities, and in order to impose more
pressure on Ran, Maimon, Tsuff and Gil devised a scheme. Amir Sanker was at
this time their manager of DFM, which, like the “Brandon ’s” furniture stores, is a fully owned
subsidiary of Verno Holland and Chesny.
Maimon, Tsuff, and Gil in concert, have stolen documents, forged
documents, and made false statements to the Israeli press about Ran. Maimon, Tsuff, and Gil conspired in an
attempt to turn the Israeli public against Ran, so that Ran will be too afraid
to even consider a return to Israel .
The three turned to a Calcalist (Israeli “Economist” magazine) reporter, Sivan
Aizescu, and offered for him to come to Houston ,
Texas
In
fact, documents show that Gil declared to the INS (The US Immigration and
Naturalization Service) that he is the owner and operator of Chesny, Verno
Holland, and Verno USA .
Additionally, Sanker has recently declared to the INS that he is the manager of
DFM. Both Gil and Sanker have forged Ran’s signatures on checks from these
companies.
Maimon, Tsuff and Gil have wrongfully
accused Ran of numerous lies and false claims in an attempt to embarrass and
discredit Ran. Gil has made numerous
false and slanderous statements regarding Ran, and it is Gil that stole Ran’s
identity, and illegally diverted money from Verno (USA). Gil presented numerous forged and false
documents to the INS in an attempt to stay in the United States illegally. Maimon, Tsuff, Gil and Amir Sanker conspired
to commit and did commit numerous forgeries of company checks of Verno (USA),
Brandon & DFM. Together they
illegally diverted nearly $1,000,000.00 of funds from Verno (USA). Gil also illegally diverted money from Brandon ’s of Houston , LLC
d/b/a Brandon ’s Home Furnishings and illegally
sent them to his personal accounts in Harris County, Israel, China , and Chesny Estates account in Switzerland .
Under Maimon and Tsuff’s
direct orders, Sanker and Gil conspired to steal and did steal
personal items from Ran,
including his computer and documents.
Plaintiff seeks actual and compensatory damages as well as
punitive damages. Plaintiff seeks
damages in excess of the minimum jurisdiction of the Court. Plaintiff also seeks attorney’s fees and cost
of court.
VI. Malicious Civil Prosecution
6.1 Maimon, Tsuff and GIL are liable to RAN
for malicious prosecution. Maimon, Tsuff and GIL initiated the
proceedings that resulted made the basis of this suit. RAN is innocent of all charges. Maimon,
Tsuff and GIL do not have any reasonable basis to initiate this lawsuit,
as RAN did not defraud GIL. Maimon,
Tsuff and GIL acted with malice when he initiated the suit against
RAN.
VII. Defamation
7.1 Under
MAIMON and TSUFF’S direct orders GIL and SANKER made slanderous statements
regarding false acts of RAN to third parties, and therefore Maimon, Tsuff, GIL and SANKER are
liable to RAN for defamation. Under Maimon
and Tsuff direct orders GIL and
SANKER published false statements regarding criminal assault to third persons,
and the imputation of a crime is per se slander. The false statements of GIL
and SANKER were defamatory and injurious to RAN. The statements were false and GIL and SANKER
were negligent and/or acted with malice with regard to the truth of the
statements. As a result of the
slanderous statements, RAN suffered injuries, including, but not limited to,
damage to RAN’s reputation, injury to feelings, loss of income, costs of court,
economic damages and mental anguish.
VIII. Tortuous
Interference with Prospective Relations
8.1 MAIMON,
TSUFF, GIL and SANKER have made numerous false statements to Ran’s business
associates and vendors.
8.2 MAIMON, TSUFF,
GIL and SANKER have made fraudulent statements about RAN to third parties that
have impeded Ran’s ability to conduct business.
IX. Damages
9.1 MAIMON,
TSUFF, GIL and SANKER committed various acts of which individually and
collectively constitute malicious prosecution and slander, which was/were the
proximate cause(s) of the following injuries suffered by Ran:
a.
Damage to reputation and feelings;
and
b.
Past and future mental anguish;
and
c.
Past and future lost wages and
earning capacity; and
d.
Actual and compensatory damages;
and
e.
Costs of court and legal defense.
f.
Attorney fees.
X. Exemplary Damages
10.1 MAIMON,
TSUFF, GIL and SANKER’s conduct was malicious and knowing, and exemplary
damages are authorized under Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code, §41.003
et seq. Additionally, RAN is entitled to
seek exemplary damages under claims of slander as GIL had specific intent to
cause substantial injury or harm to RAN.
XI. Demand for Jury
11.1 Plaintiff demands a trial by jury and
tenders the appropriate fee.
XII. Prayer
12.1 For
these reasons, RAN respectfully request that this Court enter judgment that GIL
take nothing by his suit against RAN, and that RAN recover all costs
appropriately recoverable, along with all reasonable attorneys’ fees incurred
by RAN in defending the suit by GIL. RAN
further requests that MAIMON, TSUFF, GIL and SANKER be cited to appear and
answer herein, and that RAN have judgment against ALL DEFENDANTS, JOINTLY AND
SEVERALLY for the following:
a.
actual and compensatory damages in
the amount of $5 million;
b.
exemplary damages in the amount of
$10 million;
c.
prejudgment and post-judgment
interests as allowed by law;
d.
costs of suit, and/or
e.
All other relief, at law and in
equity, to which Plaintiff may be entitled.
XIII. REQUEST FOR DISCLOSURE
13.1 Under
the authority of Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 194, RAN requests that ALL
DEFENDANTS disclose, within 30 days of service of this request, the information
or material described in Rule 194.2.
Respectfully
Submitted:
Terry W. Yates & Associates
Terry W. Yates
State bar No. 22142600
6750 West Loop South, Suite
845
(713) 861-3100
(713) 621-0000 Facsimile
ATTORNEY
FOR Defendant / Counter-Plaintiff
Summary of Attachments
- Equital
Group Presentation
- Derivative
Suit: Ran vs. Tsuff
- Derivative
Suit: Lapiner vs. Tsuff
- Calcalist
Article and its Translation: “The Insiders are Robbing Isramco”
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