What's happening with Motti & Deborah Gruzman? Will it affect Leukerbad?

Recently, Excelion creditors who are suing the Gruzman couple in various lawsuits reported that both have changed their legal representatives in cases related to their investment in Hollern Hotel in Bruck, Austria.

In February 2017, the plaintiffs purchased apartments in Hollern Hotel near Zell am See in the Salzburgerland. The apartments were never delivered. Gruzman’s explanations for the project delays were false, as the Gruzmans had never even started renovating the hotel. Additionally, without prior notice to the buyers, Gruzman continued to market apartments that had already been sold.

Since Gruzman diverted investors' funds to other projects, he lacked the money to pay the mortgage he had taken from an Austrian bank to purchase the property in the first place. The bank took legal action, the hotel was seized, and it was sold at a public auction. The Tel Aviv District Court froze Motti Gruzman’s bank account and placed a lien on Deborah Gruzman’s apartment in Beit Shemesh, where the Gruzman family resides. Furthermore, a second travel ban was imposed on Gruzman, in addition to an existing travel restriction related to another lawsuit from Halachic Loans Ltd.

As a result of this affair, two separate lawsuits were filed by two groups of investors who had purchased apartments in this project. In both cases, the Gruzman couple are now represented separately—Motti by Eliezar Rudin & Co. and Deborah by Osher Rubinger. Strange, isn’t it?

It is worth noting that, beyond the division of asset ownership, the separation between business partners Nemirovsky and Gruzman also led to separate legal representation in several cases.

As a reminder, Deborah Gruzman is the sole owner of two properties in Leukerbad, Switzerland.

Interesting.