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Enforcement of Money Judgments Are Not Usually This Titillating

From press accounts (I make no representation of the accuracy of anything in the press accounts):

A New York investment banker (Hugh Levey) worth $29 million has a judgment against him for $1.3 million for making a bad investment. The "judgment creditor" (the person or organization that has the judgment) is a company called Pensmore, which gave Mr. Levey the money to invest.

Once you have a money judgment against another party (called the "judgment debtor"), you can do things like restrain bank accounts and send restraining notices to other people who owe the judgment debtor money or may be giving the debtor money. The notice says you can't give any money to the judgment debtor, etc., because any such money should be used to satisfy the judgment. New York law gives judgment creditors very broad powers to look for money to satisfy judgments.

Apparently, Mr. Levey has not paid the judgment, which has now opened up aspects of his personal life that I'm sure he would have preferred to keep quiet. Pensmore claims it sent restraining notices to a Claire Gruppo, who may have been making attorney fee payments to Mr. Levey's divorce attorney for a divorce he's going through. Pensmore's lawyers say those payments are a violation of the restraining notice it sent her.

Because of all of this, it has come out that Mr. Levey has been having an affair with Ms. Gruppo, who is also his business partner. Pensmore has brought a motion against Ms. Gruppo for contempt for violating the restraining notice it sent.

I've been involved in numerous enforcements of money judgments over the years. They are usually not this interesting.

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