Joe Schreibvogel Lawsuit Update

Howard wrote this for our supporters, but it’s a great summary of work that has taken a lot of our time:

 

LAWSUIT UPDATE By Howard Baskin 3/17/15

 

It has been a busy six months since our last update.  So it is time to let our supporters know what is happening in our efforts to collect our judgment against Joe Schreibvogel and his zoo. We view Joe as one of the most notorious exploiters of tiger cubs in the world.

 

By way of review, after we won the $1mm+ judgment in early 2013, Joe had three individuals associated with him and/or the GW Park incorporate a new GW Zoo.  Joe’s “husband” John Finlay became President.   This is the same John Finlay who in depositions in our lawsuit said he did no work at the Park, he slept until noon and then went fishing or played video games.

 

Joe filed personal bankruptcy.  Then he had the old GW Park file bankruptcy and filed to dissolve the GW Park corporation.  Meantime, he claimed that almost all of the assets of the old Park were now owned by the new Zoo.

 

There are certain conditions under which your debts are not discharged in bankruptcy.  The one we are aware of is if you lie sufficiently in your bankruptcy filing.  Joe ended up signing a consent agreement that says his personal debts are NOT discharged by this bankruptcy.  This means we can continue to go after his income and assets indefinitely in our efforts to collect our judgment against him personally. So one outcome of his having used our name for his traveling show and losing the lawsuit is that he has to avoid ever owning anything in his name because we can go after it.

 

The Park bankruptcy was simply thrown out by the court.  So currently we are suing the new Zoo to obtain the Park assets that the Zoo claims to own.  There have been two very interesting and positive developments in our collection efforts.

 

JOE INHERITANCE OF KANSAS LAND

 

When you file bankruptcy you are obligated by law to list all your assets.  In his personal bankruptcy Joe conveniently failed to list his residual interest in a large tract of farm land with mineral rights in Kansas.  The land was owned by Joe’s maternal grandfather.  Joe’s mother has a life estate interest, and when she dies the land goes to Joe and his siblings.  To make a long story short, we discovered the residual interest Joe had failed to disclose and advised the Bankruptcy Trustee.  The Bankruptcy Trustee then took this residual interest from Joe and sold it to us.  So we now own Joe’s inheritance.

 

One humorous part is that Joe thinks that if he dies before his mother we will not get his interest in the land.  He rants about this repeatedly.  Most recently he talked about having his mother on life support for as long as it took for him to die if she ever needed it.  However, he is wrong.  As a result of legal actions we have taken, we do get his interest even if he dies before his mother.  So, we chuckle every time he rants about how proud he is that he will die first and keep us from getting his inheritance.

 

ZOO LAND

 

The other positive development relates to the land the Zoo sits on.  The day we sued him in 2011 Joe personally owned the land.  Apparently anticipating that he might end up losing the lawsuit and filing personal bankruptcy, in the days just after we sued him he transferred the land to his mother.  He later claimed under oath that when he did that he did not know he had been sued because he had not been served.   However, BEFORE he transferred the land to his mother, he wrote a Facebook post entitled “Shit has hit the fan” announcing we had sued him.  One more lie under oath.

 

The Bankruptcy Trustee sued his mother Shirley to bring the land back into the bankruptcy estate.  Sadly, Shirley seems to believe Joe’s lies, and has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars funding his zoos and his lawsuits.   We have evidence that indicates that she, like Joe, has blatantly lied under oath – this apple does not seem to fall