Hollywood oil heir Brandon Davis and his brothers Jason and Alexander are being sued over alleged “fraudulent” money transfers made to them by their mother, Nancy Davis, before she filed for bankruptcy.
Nancy, daughter of late oil and entertainment billionaire Marvin Davis, filed for bankruptcy in 2011 and now the trustee for her estate claims “intentional fraudulent transfers” were made by her to her three sons following the 2010 sale of her trophy Bel-Air mansion for $12.2 million.
Trustee Howard M. Ehrenberg claims Nancy “made a number of transfers to or for the benefit of her adult children in exchange for little or no value.” Alex received $116,000 in a transfer described as a “marketing reimbursement.” Brandon got $30,000 and Jason got $135,000, according to the filing, which claims the transfers were done to “delay or defraud” Nancy’s creditors.
The suit adds the payments “were constructive fraudulent transfers and are recoverable [on behalf of creditors] under the Bankruptcy Code,” and an investigation is under way to see if Brandon received other “avoidable transfers.”
Stella Havkin, the lawyer for Nancy’s sons, responded that “the payments were made in accordance with the ordinary course of business.”
Marvin Davis, who once owned 20th Century Fox and the Beverly Hills Hotel, died at 79 in September 2004 with a fortune of $5.8 billion, according to Forbes. The family has bickered over the fortune since his death.
Nancy had previously claimed that her brother Gregg Davis cheated her and her socialite mother, Barbara Davis, out of millions by low-balling the value of family oil company Davis Petroleum in a forced bankruptcy sale. She tried to file a $50 million suit accusing Gregg of conspiring with Evercore, Bain and a former Goldman Sachs Group partner to buy the firm for $150 million when it was worth up to $1 billion. They denied it and a judge refused her permission to sue.
Lawyers for Ehrenberg didn’t get back to us. Havkin said, “My only comment is that the case against the Davis children has no merit.”