Remember the Genesis bankruptcy? Plot twist: Judge Jernigan threw out the November auction after Joel Landau's group submitted the lower bid and still got picked - while erasing all his personal liability from the $1.6 billion in lawsuits. The judge basically said "try again, and this time act like it's a real auction."
Now Genie 3 Partners - that's Jacob Sod, Rowan Farber, and Ari Schwartz for those keeping score at home - is the new stalking horse bidder at roughly $1 billion. Monday January 13th is round two, this time with actual Justice Department supervision.
The Ari Schwartz Drama
You can't make this stuff up. Genesis tried to reject Genie 3's billion-dollar bid partly because one of Genie's partners, Ari Schwartz, is banned from Medicare until 2033.
Why is he banned? In 2023, Schwartz settled with HHS-OIG after allegations that he made misrepresentations to get a New York nursing home license, handed control to unlicensed operators without telling the state, and billed Medicaid for what OIG called "worthless services" until the place closed in 2021. Genesis's attorney called this "a very serious issue" and said it justified choosing the insider bid instead. The creditors' response, essentially: "You're using this as a pretext to sell to yourselves and wipe away $100 million in liability claims - that's not better." Neither side is wrong, exactly. Genesis has a point that Medicare exclusion is a real problem for someone involved in buying 175 nursing homes. But Genesis has had major issues with quality of care as well allegedly.
So we've got Orthodox operators on both sides of a billion-dollar courtroom fight over 175 nursing homes. Grab your popcorn.