Below is an email I received this morning from the Florida lawyer who is representing former tenants of UPi in court. She is working hard to hold Spiros Zorbalas and UPi accountable for their actions. I sent her my lease, my Certificate of Rent Paid, and some other documents.
The email has been slightly edited by me to clarify the context. My edits are represented by parentheses, “…”, and bold text.
Thanks for the documents. The UPI renter stuff is great because I can show the court that (Spiros Zorbalas) laughs at every judgment…. I am trying to collect on judgments that were rendered in August and November 2009.
UPI claimed my client had a year lease and she claimed she had a 6 month lease. She couldn’t find her lease, so they produced a copy showing that it was an annual lease, and Zorbalas threatened to ruin her credit if she didn’t keep paying. She moved out but kept paying. The lease was a UPI Minnesota form, but even so, Florida law applies, so attorney fees go to the prevailing party. After paying for 5 more months, she found her lease and it showed that Zorbalas had changed the lease and “filled in blanks” after it was signed. I sent a letter asking UPI to refund her money and they refused, so we sued. Should have been a simple little case. He delayed, delayed, delayed. I noticed his manager’s depo 6 times.
(Zorbalas) went through three lawyers by the time we got to trial, and tried to represent himself – claiming to the judge that he was a single member LLC so he could. We went to trial in June 2009 and the judge entered a judgment based on a jury verdict in August 2009. In November 2009, he entered a second judgment awarding my client all her attorney fees. Most of the attorney fees were the result of all his shenanigans and delays. UPI is a Florida LLC registered in MN as a foreign corp, so the court here has jurisdiction over its assets. (More about that below)
(Zorbalas) hasn’t paid and is now on his 5th lawyer. After the 30 day appeal period had expired, I set Zorbalas’s depo in aid of execution, which was held in Feb 2010. I asked him to bring documents to the depo – and he brought none. He claimed under oath that UPI did not rent property anymore and was just a marketing firm. He said there were no leases with UPI in Minnesota or Florida. He claimed he couldn’t remember his accountant’s name.
After that, I went through the business of opening proceedings supplementary which required some time to file and obtain all the necessary writs, and the court opened proceedings in October 2010. Attorney fees are now at issue again under Florida statute. I have asked again for a lot of documents which he will not produce. His lawyer has stood in open court and claimed that UPI has no money.
You and I know he is a pathological liar, but I have to show that to the court. (Before trial the judge did see the fed. Judgment and sentencing for his conviction for fraud)
I need documents – leases, copies of checks made out to UPI, certificates of rent paid, for 2009 and 2010. …(You) have sent me docs showing he was collecting rents in 2005 – 2008. I need all that because he has already claimed UPI doesn’t collect rents, therefore he will claim there are no checking accounts which the court can garnish to satisfy the judgments, or rents which the court can garnish to satisfy the judgments.
I also need to know who tenants are paying now. If I have the proof that he is lying the court can hold him in contempt and send him to jail until he delivers the account numbers for garnishment.
As a practical matter, because this is an LLC in Florida, the court can order him to transfer assets from MN to FL to garnish and the court can decide to hold him personally responsible for the debts of the LLC and we can attach that way – but we are talking about a lot of time (it takes 2-3 months to get on a docket every time I need a hearing) Plus, my client could really use the money he owes her.
So that’s what I need and why. I spelled it all out and you can share this email with anyone that wants to help. I will need an affidavit from each person that shares docs that attests to the authenticity of the documents, but that’s all and I will provide the affidavits.
Here’s something else that occurred to me: As I said, UPI is a Florida LLC, and Zorbalas and his LLC are in Naples, so the Collier County court has jurisdiction over his LLS and its single member. His MN tenants can move for damages and obtain judgments in MN because that is where the contract arose, but they can also domesticate those judgments in FL if they haven’t been paid up there and ask the court here to garnish the LLC accounts (or Zorbalas personally) (We would need a certified copy of the judgment from the court in MN)
Once the judgment is domesticated in Florida, it would have to be recorded with the Sec of State here and there is a recording fee, and we would have to sue him on the judgment, but all the costs should be collectible with the judgment.
I think we could apply Florida law to the collection of the judgment and collect atty fees for getting the judgments paid. I don’t really have the time to handle a bunch of small cases but we could almost do them assembly line style and I could probably find a young lawyer to help that needed the business.
Zorbalas thinks he is untouchable and I want to prove him wrong. He owes me and my clients money and while he lives the life of Riley, the people he has screwed do without. (I am obviously still stuck in my 60’s notions of right and wrong)
If there are a lot of judgments, or even a few, it’s worth exploring. I would have to do the research on the atty fee issue – because no one can pay atty fees to collect a small judgment, but I would do that if there are former tenants that are interested in going after Zorbalas.
You may pass along all or any part of this email to anyone that you think might be willing to help or has a judgment. Thanks to you for helping me, and most importantly, my client out with this battle.
Colleen
Want to help? Please email, fax, or mail copies of your lease, CRP, cashed checks made out to UPi to:
