OK, the way the settlement works is this: (and this is all public record, folks)
The plaintiffs have a stipulated judgment of $8,050,000 due and payable by January 1, 2008. Piazza has to pay 20% of all revenues into a settlement account which was opened with a $200K deposit in late December. He also has to maintain an operations account in the amount of $500K (and has to pay 20% of all revenues to that account to build it up and keep it at $500K). This account is not to be used for payroll and all related expenses. He also has to submit financials periodically, as well as be audited at least once a year.
All First Family members eligible for the settlement have to opt in to get their monies (and most folks will get a portion of what they paid for their memberships back) and still be able to keep their memberships with all of the bells and whistles they were promised at inception of that membership. Failure to do so will prevent them from suing him in the future for any of the same RICO violations that triggered the original lawsuit. Whatever is left over after all of the opted-in members have been paid will revert back to Piazza for his own use. Maybe he can finish that new $3M house he's allegedly building on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe.
The FS property may or may not still be for sale. Escrow for the reported sale was supposed to close on December 8, and did not. Most of you who have purchased homes will know that if an escrow does not close on time, the deposit is retained by the seller as a cost of holding the property off the market for the duration of the escrow. Whether or not the property is still for sale, the operations fund is to be used to maintain and improve the property until such time as all improvements are done, or the property is sold and the facility is relocated to another site.
There is also a stipulation that he is not to encumber the property further (since there is now over $15M in encumbrances already recorded against the property--also public record for anyone who wants to go and look it up). The IRS has a lien of around $150K for nonpayment of taxes since 2004, and the company that was contracted to install the fire suppression system filed a lien of over $175K for nonpayment on the contract. Any other liens filed against the property will trigger the foreclosure option that the plaintiffs have, and will shut Piazza down. It is incumbent upon Piazza that he not do anything to trigger the foreclosure option, because there could be major legal consequences down the road.
Whether or not he's smart enough to figure this all out is another question altogether.
Livvie
