As Tony Ortega reported on the Underground Bunker and we have covered on this blog, Scientologist Matt Feshbach and his wife Cathy have been engaged in negotiations followed by lawsuit with the IRS for almost twenty years now. At issue is the $3.8 million in unpaid taxes the Feshbach’s owe from 2001. From Feshbach vs. the United States:

The courts have consistently ruled that the Feshbach’s earned millions of dollars after 2001. The couple’s income was far in excess of what was required to pay their 2001 tax bill in full. In an attempt to evade making the full payment of their 2001 tax debt, the Feshbach’s made partial payments to the IRS, offered to settle for pennies on the dollar, and filed bankruptcy in 2011 in an effort to discharge their tax debt.

The Feshbach’s were using these strategies to create lengthy delays in hopes of discharging their tax debt or forcing a very small settlement. All the while, however, the Feshbach’s enjoyed a luxury lifestyle that included a private chef, an expensive vacation home, and large sums spent dining out and purchasing expensive clothing. Due to their high living and willfulness in not paying their tax debt when they clearly had the means to do so, the courts have consistently ruled that the Feshbach’s tax debt is not dischargeable in bankruptcy. The US Eleventh District court upheld this decision of the US Tax Court last week.

As it now stands the Feshbach’s owe the $3.8 million to the IRS.

2008: MATT FESHBACH LIQUIDATES HIS MLF INVESTMENTS

Matt Feshbach and his brothers Kurt and Joe became notorious short-sellers in the 1980’s. The Feshbach Brothers investment fund grew to $1 billion before it declined. Matt Feshbach later opened his profitable MLF Investments. After some bad investments, Feshbach liquidated MLF Investments in 2008 when the global economy was in danger of collapse.

What did Matt Feshbach do after he closed MLF Investments? Cade Hildreth, CEO of BioInformant, wrote of Feshbach in a 2016 article:

While Matthew Feshbach’s career as an investor spanned more than 30 years, he changed directions in 2009 when he and his brother, Joseph Feshbach, began researching the potential of adult stem cells. Their interest resulted from a chance meeting with the public company, Cytori Therapeutics, having been introduced by an investment associate.

In this piece, Feshbach stated:

Matthew Feshbach: Myself, my twin brother Joe, and my partner, Manuel Vianna conceived the idea and collaborated in founding Okyanos. Unfortunately, my twin brother passed away of a heart attack about 12 days after we received funding.

2011-2017: MATT FESHBACH’S OKYANOS STEM CELL INSTITUTE IN THE BAHAMAS

Even as the Feshbach’s were filing bankruptcy in 2011, Matt Feshbach used his several years of research into stem cells to found Okyanos. Feshbach incorporated Okyanos as an LLC. The purpose of Okyanos was to build and operate an adult stem cell clinic in Freeport, Bahamas.

Okyanos had no operational stem cell clinic at the time Feshbach incorporated in 2011. Okyanos existed only on paper. Moreover, when Feshbach founded Okyanos in 2011, The Bahamas had not legalized stem cell medicine. Feshbach therefore spent the next three years lobbying Bahamian authorities to pass legislation allowing stem cell medical clinics to operate in the Bahamas. Feshbach argued that medical tourism arising from stem cell clinics would result in a financial boon for The Bahamas.

Matt Feshbach did not have an easy time of things in the Bahamas. For example, Feshbach apparently failed to inform the Bahamian Minister of State for Investments of he and his wife’s bankruptcy and messy IRS problems. This is called a “withhold” in Scientology. The Nassau Guardian reported that Feshbach’s IRS problems came “in light of revelations.”

Feshbach and his wife had told the IRS in 2011 that their net worth was only $138,000. As Grand Bahama was passing a set of laws to permit Feshbach’s venture to operate, the authorities naturally had reasons to be concerned once they learned of Feshbach’s bankruptcy and massive IRS debt and paltry net worth. Feshbach, a man who wore $6,000 suits and lived in the lap of luxury, assured the Bahamian authorities that his IRS debt and bankruptcy were mere trifles. The Nassau Guardian of July 19, 2013:

The government is undertaking a “full review” of a proposal to develop a stem cell treatment facility in Grand Bahama in light of revelations that its CEO has declared bankruptcy and is battling the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over a $3.8m unpaid liability.

Khaalis Rolle, minister of state for investments, told Guardian Business yesterday that court documents relating to Okyanos Heart Institute CEO Matt Feshbach’s current legal and financial woes suggest the Christie administration was correct to hold off on granting final approval of the project. Okyanos Heart Institute intends to offer stem cell therapy to cardiac artery disease patients. The facility had received conditional approval from the former government.

Rolle’s comments come as the Okyanos Heart Institute described Feshbach’s IRS woes as a “personal matter that started many years ago and does not relate to the Okyanos Heart Institute.”

Feshbach himself, in a phone interview with Guardian Business, said that his legal and financial situation “does not affect the viability or solvency of Okyanos in any way”.

“Okyanos is an investor-backed company and is not dependent on any one investor. We’ve raised a significant amount of money to date,” said Feshbach, who described himself as a shareholder in the company.

The Nassau Guardian further noted Feshbach’s belief in his Scientology super powers:

He [Feshbach] has also been strongly connected to the Church of Scientology and is noted in a 2006 St. Petersburg Times article as a major financial backer of the church’s “Super Powers” program. The program is intended to heighten one’s perceptions – or “perceptics”, in Scientology parlance – via the five senses.

In the article, Feshbach is said to believe he has super powers, which helped him to save a young boy’s life, and is quoted as saying that he is “no longer dependent on [his] physical body to perceive things”.

$14 MILLION IN DUBIOUS MONEY FROM AN IRAQI SCIENTOLOGIST GOES INTO OKYANOS

In 2014, Matt Feshbach obtained ~$14 million dollars in dubious money from his fellow Scientologist Ali Shawkat. Feshbach raised this investment money from Shawkat in two tranches during 2014:

• Okyanos Holding Company LLC SEC Form D filed in February 2014. This raised $3.75 million from Ali Shawkat’s Passion Trust.
• Okyanos Heart Institute raised $8.9 million in a Series B funding round in March 2014. This money also came from Ali Shawkat’s Passion Trust.

THE OKYANOS HEART INSTITUTE

Feshbach used Ali Shawkat’s money to the launch the Okyanos Heart Institute. Feshbach rented a building, leased medical equipment, and hired some US doctors to travel to the Bahamas as needed to perform treatments including liposuction on the belly fat of patients. This belly fat would be centrifuged to separate out adult stem cells. The stem cells would then be injected by a doctor into knees, shoulders, or even the heart wall in some patients.

Okyanos was not doing anything new or groundbreaking. Instead, the company relied on technology and procedures developed by Cytori Therapeutics:

Okyanos Heart Institute, whose mission it is to bring a new standard of care and a better quality of life to patients with coronary artery disease using adult stem cell therapy, and Cytori Therapeutics have announced that they have established a ten year supply agreement for the Celution™ System family of products to be utilized by the Okyanos Heart Institute.

“Cytori’s Celution™ system is a CE-marked device that is compliant with the European Medical Device Directive, has a well established safety record and will be used by Okyanos to treat patients with coronary artery disease and other ischemic conditions,” stated Matthew Feshbach, CEO and co-founder of Okyanos. “In a small but rigorous double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial, strong signals of efficacy from the placement of adipose-derived stem and regenerative cells (ADRCs) in the heart were reported,” added Feshbach.

“For Cytori, this agreement represents our expanding customer base and an important new customer focused on utilizing the global standard CelutionTM System to process ADRCs to treat patients,” stated Christopher Calhoun, CEO of Cytori.

Feshbach claimed that his Okyanos Heart Institute:

…brings a new standard of care and a better quality of life to patients with “no-option” coronary artery disease (CAD) via cardiac stem cell therapy… Stem cells are those with the potential to develop into many different types of cells in the body. According to research, a patient’s own body fat is the most abundant source of stem cells. Medically known as adipose-derived stem and regenerative cells (ADRCs), these stem cells have been used safely and effectively in several thousand patients, both in rigorous clinical trials and clinical settings. ADRCs have been found to “re-vascularize” tissue that lacks blood flow.

Feshbach’s problem here is that a heart attack damages and kills cardiac heart muscle. Revascularization cannot regenerate new heart muscle. Even the human body is not able to regenerate heart muscle and instead replaces it with scar tissue. Cardiac heart muscle is formed from cells called cardiomyocytes. Can the adult stem cells (ADRCs) Okyanos was using differentiate in cardiomyocytes? The answer is no.

In order to be effective in regenerating cardiac heart muscle, ADRCs have to be reprogrammed into what are called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. These iPS cells can then differentiate into cardiomyocytes:

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, adult tissue-specific cells that are reprogrammed in the lab to behave like embryonic stem cells and which have the capacity to become any cell type in the body, including cardiomyocytes.

Cardiomyocytes, the beating muscle cells that make up the atria, the chambers where blood enters the heart, and the ventricles, where blood is pumped out of your heart. Cardiomyocytes are currently being targeted in cellular therapies for heart disease.

iPS cells are now called iPSC’s. A 2017 study noted the challenges of reprogramming iPSC’s:

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are somatic cells reprogrammed into an embryonic-like pluripotent state by the expression of specific transcription factors. iPSC technology is expected to revolutionize regenerative medicine in the near future. Despite the fact that these cells have the capacity to self-renew, they present low efficiency of reprogramming. Recent studies have demonstrated that the previous somatic epigenetic signature is a limiting factor in iPSC performance. Indeed, the process of effective reprogramming involves a complete remodeling of the existing somatic epigenetic memory, followed by the establishment of a “new epigenetic signature” that complies with the new type of cell to be differentiated. Therefore, further investigations of epigenetic modifications associated with iPSC reprogramming are required in an attempt to improve their self-renew capacity and potency, as well as their application in regenerative medicine, with a new strategy to reduce the damage in degenerative diseases.

In an adult, a nonfatal heart attack can destroy up to 30% of a person’s cardiomyocytes. The Holy Grail in stem cell heart treatment is to reprogram ADRCs into iPSCs that have a very high conversion efficiency into cardiomyocytes. Hence, the need for new and well-funded scientific investigations into “epigenetic modifications associated with iPSC reprogramming.”

When it opened, Okyanos did not have the equipment or staff needed to reprogram adult stem cells into iPS cells. Okyanos was limited to the Cytori technology of liposuction, centrifuging, and re-injection of adult (ADRC) stem cells. Okyanos stated its basic capabilities:

Okyanos Cell Therapy delivers a mixed population of fat (adipose) derived stem and regenerative cells (ADRCs) using internationally-approved technology to patients with chronic, degenerative conditions.

From a business perspective, Feshbach’s Okyanos was not a complex operation:

1. 1. Feshbach raised $14 million from one main investor who was a fellow Scientologist. The provenance of the $14 million was questionable.
   2. Okyanos sold and delivered non-FDA approved stem cell procedures outside of the US.
   3. Feshbach leased some medical equipment and housed it in a rented facility.
   4. Feshbach either leased or purchased  Cytori’s Celution™ equipment for use in his rented facility.
   5. Feshbach had his medical staff, most of whom were US contractors that flew to the Bahamas as needed, use Cytori’s procedures.

Feshbach claimed that he alone gained the approval of the Bahamian government to open his stem cell clinic. However, as we reported:

Former US Ambassador to The Bahamas John Rood was brought in by Matt Feshbach to serve as a Director at Okyanos Holdings Co LLC. Because the Bahamian government had to pass a law allowing Okyanos to operate, Former Ambassador Rood’s contacts were undoubtedly invaluable. On a related note, John Rood is the Chairman of the Vestcor Companies Inc.

MANUEL VIANNA 

Matt Feshbach’s co-founder and second-in-command at Okyanos was his fellow Scientologist Manuel Vianna, a Harvard MBA and a man who would later figure prominently as an executive at Scientologist-owned GPB Capital Holdings. A purported $1.8 Ponzi scheme engulfed in legal problems, GPB Capital was the subject of an FBI raid last year.

As we documented, Manuel Vianna disappeared shortly after the FBI raids on GPB Capital and has apparently gone to ground. Vianna was recently dismissed from a Texas lawsuit (Barasch v. GPB Capital et al) against GPB Capital as process servers could not find him to serve him. Perhaps Vianna is hiding out with Scientology leader David Miscavige to avoid process servers?

THORN MEDICAL’S FAILED ACQUISITION OF OKYANOS

Matt Feshbach formally opened Okyanos in June 2015. Less than one year later in April 2016, Thorn Medical, a company based in the UK, issued a formal announcement that it had purchased Okyanos. However, the sale was never completed. This raises many questions:

1. 1. Why did Matt Feshbach invest five years of work to build Okyanos only to sell it after less than one year of operation? Feshbach had spent years promoting adult stem cell treatments as a major breakthrough in medicine — and one that would be extremely lucrative for investors, physicians, and even the Bahamian government.

2. Matt Feshbach would have had to pay back Ali Shawkat his $14 million investment along with some profit on the investment. However, Okyanos did not generate anywhere near $14 million in gross income during the ten months of operation under CEO Feshbach. At the time of sale, Okyanos claimed to have treated about 200 patients. To break even on Shawkat’s $14 million investment, 200 patients would have each had to pay $70,000 in cash for treatments that were not covered by insurance. And even this would not have covered payroll, facility rental, medical equipment leases, and other overhead expenses.

3. If Okyanos would be as profitable as Feshbach claimed, why did he walk away from a steady and lucrative monthly income and a percentage of the profits? This is a very important question inasmuch as the projected income from Okyanos would give Feshbach a way to make monthly payments on his debt to the IRS. However, Feshbach had chosen to fight the IRS in court in an attempt to discharge his tax debt in bankruptcy. He did this even as he was selling Okyanos. None of this makes sense to us.

4. Feshbach had promoted himself for years, and still does, as a stem cell pioneer and visionary. So why did he sell Okyanos once it was operational and treating patients? Why didn’t he bide his time in The Bahamas and wait for US laws to change?

5. Why did the sale to Thorn Medical fall through? After we wrote an article on the matter, Thorn Medical CEO Jack Kaye wrote the following in the comments section of our article:

An agreement was signed between the two companies for Thorn to acquire controlling interest, but the agreement then required approval by the Bahamas Central Bank, under Bahamas law as a foreign company was acquiring controlling interest in a Bahamas company. This approval took a few months to come through, for no other reason but bureaucratic delays. In that interim period Matt Feshback (sic) wrote to the board of Thorn Medical to say that the company (Okyanos) was insolvent. At that point the Thorn Medical board of directors, given that information, could no longer proceed with the acquisition and withdrew from acquiring Okyanos.

Please scroll down Mr. Kaye’s comments section on this linked article. We discussed the Thorn/Okyanos matter with Chris Lang in the comments section of his Redd Monitor blog. Mr. Kaye’s claim that Feshbach admitted to Okyanos being insolvent in 2016 is sensational to say the least. If Kaye’s claim is true, then where did Ali Shawkat’s $14 million investment into Okyanos go from 2015 to 2016? How much was Feshbach paying himself? Was money diverted from Okyanos? Kaye’s claim raises disturbing questions.

6. Thorn Medical announced on August 17, 2017 that is was insolvent and was placing itself into voluntary liquidation. Given Thorn’s finances, did the company have sufficient cash in 2015 to acquire Okyanos?

ED BOSARGE OF BLACK BERET LIFE SCIENCES ACQUIRES OKYANOS

                           Ed Bosarge

Three weeks before Thorn’s announcement of insolvency, a July 25, 2017 press release announced that Okyanos had been acquired by Black Beret Life Sciences LLC: 

Black Beret Life Sciences LLC Leads Acquisition of Okyanos Center for Regenerative Medicine — Houston-Based Life Sciences Firm Adds Bahamas Adult Stem Cell Therapy Company to Portfolio

HOUSTON, July 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Black Beret Life Sciences LLC has finalized the acquisition of Okyanos Operating Company, Ltd., a state-of-the-art adult stem cell and regenerative medicine center based in Freeport, Grand Bahama.

In the sale of Okyanos, Feshbach maintained ownership of Okyanos Holding Company Ltd and sold Okyanos Operating Company Ltd to Black Beret Life Sciences.

According to Crunchbase, Black Beret Life Sciences acquired Okyanos in a leveraged buyout in July 2017. This begs the question: Why would BBLS need to use an LBO to acquire Okyanos? BBLS has cash. Indeed, in January 2017 Affigen announced a $17 million Series A funding led by Black Beret Life Sciences.

BBLS was founded in 2014 by Dr. W. E. “Ed” Bosarge. A co-founder of QuantLab Group L.P., Bosarge and his colleagues are quant-trading pioneers. The 81-year-old Bosarge has a Ph.D. in applied mathematics and physics, worked on the Apollo program, and became interested in life extension technologies long ago. He founded Black Beret Life Sciences to pursue his passionate interest in biotechnology and life extension. Part of Borsage’s commitment to stem cells, as he has stated in interviews, is to use the body’s own cells to heal the body as opposed to using drugs.

THE LAWSUIT

Troubles between Black Beret Life Sciences and Matt Feshbach began almost immediately. In his lawsuit, Feshbach claims that Black Beret hired him to stay on as the CEO of Okyanos at a salary of $30,000 per month. Feshbach additionally claimed that his salary would escalate to $40,000 per month when certain sales targets were attained. However, Feshbach was terminated by BBLS after three months.

Feshbach filed a lawsuit against Ed Bosarge and Black Beret Life Sciences on October 3, 2017 alleging breach of contract and asking for monetary and punitive damages. Feshbach made several allegations against the defendants:

Within days after obtaining this approval and closing the purchase [of Okyanos], the DEFENDANTS [Black Beret Life Sciences] revealed their schemes to engage in illegal conduct by making illegal payments to US. physicians to refer patients to CDC and to illegally import stem cell derived biological products into the Bahamas without the necessary export license from the United States government, and further, to unlawfully drain OOC [Okyanos Operating Company] income, which directly impacted OHC’s [Okyanos Holding Company] deferred compensation under the purchase agreement, by paying related parties excessive, above-market rates for undefined “services.” Then, after securing the Bahamian government’s approval for the sale of DOC to DEFENDANTS, which was based in large part on retaining FESHBACH, DEFENDANTS no longer needed FESHBACH. Once FESHBACH learned about DEFENDANTS’ proposed illegal conduct, he made it known to DEFENDANTS that he would not participate, and DEFENDANTS retaliated by terminating him. To underscore their ill-conceived and fraudulent conduct, DEFENDANTS sought to enforce a restrictive covenant that purports to preclude FESHBACH from working in his chosen field.

FESHBACH OPENS AMBROSE STEM CELL THERAPY LLC

Although Matt Feshbach signed a two year non-compete agreement as part of his post-sale employment at Okyanos, he incorporated a new company called Ambrose Cell Therapy LLC in Dallas, Texas on August 18, 2017. In his lawsuit, Feshbach claims the non-compete only applies to, “the Bahamas and Caribbean, including all islands in the Caribbean Sea and all countries contiguous to or which have coast lines on the Caribbean Sea.” Feshbach additionally claims he signed a three-year employment contract and was terminated after three months. He argues he is owed back wages in the amount of $342,522.93.

 There was a stampede in Texas to get into the stem cell therapy business after the state’s 2017 passage “Charlie’s Law” (HB 810) which allowed chronically and terminally ill people the right to opt for non-FDA approved treatments with adult stem cells. Matt Feshbach was fast to market in Texas.

After President Trump signed a Federal “Right to Try” bill into law on May 30, 2018, Matt Feshbach relocated his Ambrose stem cell clinic to Tampa, Florida near his home. The simplistic and low-budget diagram at Feshbach’s Ambrose website shows Feshbach’s treatment protocol is still limited to Cytori’s ADRC stem cell methodology:

Feshbach apparently does not have the money to move into the far more advanced, powerful, and promising iPSC stem cell technology. Feshbach still has his staff doctors liposuctioning belly fat, centrifuging it to extract ADRC stem cells, and then injecting these ADRC cells back into the patient’s body.

THE MESSY DIVORCE OF ED AND MARIE BOSARGE

Ed and Marie Bosarge’s Houston mansion is named Chateau Cornarvon. Ed Bosarge evicted his ex-wife from the mansion when divorce proceedings began. The exclusive Tanglewood area mansion is listed for sale with an asking price of $30 million.

Ed Bosarge’s net worth has been estimated to be one billion dollar with some estimates ranging as high as $3.5 billion dollars. Bosarge owns three super-yachts, several mansions, and the ultra-luxury private Bahamian island Over Yonder Cay.

In 2012, Ed Bosarge separated from Marie Bosarge, his Houston socialite wife of 30 years. Ed Bosarge left his wife for a 20-something Russian socialite named Ana Kostenkova. He subsequently filed for divorce from Marie Bosarge in 2017. Compounding matters for his Marie Bosarge is that Ed Bosarge moved all of the couple’s assets into a series of secretive South Dakota trusts over which he has sole control and ownership.

South Dakota has become the dirtiest secret of wealthy people, particularly Americans, who want the security of keeping their money in the US while enjoying the secrecy and obstructionist protections of traditional offshore tax havens such as  Cyprus, the Cayman Islands, Curacao and other “sunny places for shady people.” It is estimated that the super-wealthy have about $350 billion dollars parked in South Dakota trusts. For this reason, South Dakota is being called the “New Switzerland.” From The Guardian:

A South Dakotan trust… protects assets from claims from ex-spouses, disgruntled business partners, creditors, litigious clients and pretty much anyone else. It won’t protect you from criminal prosecution, but it does prevent information on your assets from leaking out in a way that might spark interest from the police. And it shields your wealth from the government, since South Dakota has no income tax, no inheritance tax and no capital gains tax.

Marie Bosarge does not have access to Ed Bosarge’s money and assets — and these things should be community property. This leaves Marie Bosarge to wage an expensive legal battle against her ex-husband on the $20,000 monthly stipend her ex-husband distributes to her. Marie Bosarge is hoping for justice in an upcoming trial against her ex-husband.

An excerpt from Forbes recent piece on Bosarge alludes to Matt Feshbach:

OKYANOS DESTROYED BY HURRICANE DORIAN IN 2019; DECLARED INSOLVENT IN 2020

Scientology OT Matt Feshbach is no match for either Ed Bosarge or Mother Nature. Hurricane Dorian slammed the Bahamas in 2019 and wiped out Okyanos’ clinical facility which was housed in a rented building. As a consequence of this natural disaster, Okyanos was unable to do business.

A curious aspect in the collapse of Okyanos concerns LS Enterprise Ltd. In July 2020, Eyewitness News Bahamas reported on the relationship of LS Enterprise Ltd. and Okyanos:

Okyanos’ primary creditor is LS Enterprise Ltd, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands.

According to court documents Okyanos between August 2, 2017 and May 6, 2019 entered into four loan facility agreements for working capital and general corporate amounting to some $15.9 million.

Okyanos had ultimately sought additional loans from LS Enterprise Ltd following Hurricane Dorian; however, the company was informed that it was in default of its facility agreements having ceased to carry on its business, and that all loans were immediately due and payable.

Given billionaire Ed Bosarge’s wealth, it is indeed strange that Okyanos’ landlord LS Enterprise Ltd. would lend Okyanos $15.9 million in operating capital in a 22-month period. This is a cash burn of $722,000 a month. Why did Okyanos require outside capital when Bosarge has money? How could Okyanos burn $722,000 a month in cash? In a 30-day month, that is $24,000 a day for Okyanos to keep its doors open.

THE SUPREME COURT OF THE BAHAMAS ORDERS THE LIQUIDATION OF OKYANOS

On September 3, 2020 The Tribune reported on the court-ordered liquidation of Okyanos:

A pioneering Freeport-based stem cell therapy provider had just $335,218 in cash to cover more than $13m in liabilities when it was placed into Supreme Court-supervised liquidation.

The full extent of the Okyanos Centre for Regenerative Medicine’s financial quagmire was revealed in Justice Indra Charles’ August 31, 2020, decision explaining her rationale for granting the winding-up of a company that was seen as a key player in The Bahamas’ efforts to kickstart medical tourism.

Despite Cheryl Simms, the Kikivarakis & Co accountant now confirmed as Okyanos’ full liquidator, showing the company had just $5.667m worth of assets (including that modest cash sum) to cover $13.22m in liabilities, thereby creating a $7.553m solvency deficiency, the judgment reveals Justice Charles queried whether it should remain in provisional liquidation to give it a chance to recover…

Mr Delaney said L. S. Enterprises, the company behind the winding-up petition, was a related party to Okyanos given that the two had common directors on their respective Boards. And, accepting that both Boards were in favour of liquidation, Justice Charles accepted that Okyanos was insolvent and had ceased trading.

Her judgment confirmed that L. S. Enterprises was owed more than $12m on some $15.9m that it had advanced to Okyanos via four separate lending facilities agreed between 2017 and 2019. The stem cell therapy provider’s troubles, though, were ignited by Hurricane Dorian which allegedly caused more than $2m worth of damage at its First Commercial Centre offices….

The court-ordered liquidation of the Okyanos Operating Company, a named defendant Feshbach is suing, dealt a major blow to Feshbach’s lawsuit.

Matt Feshbach owes the IRS $3.8 million. This amount has likely skyrocketed when interest and penalties are added from 2001.

Matt Feshbach’s lawsuit against Okyanos seems dead in the water inasmuch as The Bahamas judicially declared Okyanos insolvent. The petition to wind up the company was approved. Even if Feshbach could prevail in his Florida lawsuit against a Bahamian company, he would have a hard time collecting anything for four reasons:

1. Okyanos’ Bahamian creditors are first in line for whatever monies are leftover from the court-ordered liquidation of Okyanos.
2. The court ordered the parties into arbitration. We believe this will work against plaintiff Feshbach and in favor of the defendants.
3. A Florida court cannot enforce a judgment in The Bahamas. Feshbach can argue all he wants that the nexus of action was in Pinellas County, Florida but he is still suing a company in The Bahamas.
4. Ed Bosarge has his money locked away in South Dakota trusts that even his ex-wife cannot touch. How does Feshbach expect to get anywhere near Ed Bosarge’s money given that his ex-wife cannot do so?

Given Matt Feshbach’s short-lived tenure at Okyanos in which he sold the company twice (the second attempt worked), we wonder what the real story is. Nothing is ever at it seems when Scientology and money are involved.

Likewise, Black Beret’s purchase of Okyanos doesn’t make sense to us either. Black Beret could have easily copied Feshbach’s business model and opened up shop in The Bahamas. Given its sophistication and financial depth, we don’t understand why Black Beret would need anything Feshbach’s Okyanos had to offer, particularly given the fact that Okyanos was using Cytori’s technology.

In his lawsuit, Feshbach also claims that Black Beret engaged in a cash draining scheme once it took over Okyanos. The irony of a member of the Church of Scientology complaining of a cash draining scheme takes us to a level somewhere between the surreal and the laughable. In any case, given that Feshbach built Okyanos using investor money,  and then quickly acted to sell the company, one has to ask what his actual economic harm was aside from his alleged loss of salary after selling the company.

Wouldn’t it be something to see the legendary short-selling shark and Scientology OT Matt Feshbach get taken to the cleaners by a few avaricious wogs?

We look forward to the real story coming out sooner or later.

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS

In  the matter of Feshbach v. Black Beret Life Sciences et al, plaintiff Feshbach filed an EMERGENCY MOTION FOR STATUS CONFERENCE AND STAY OF ARBITRATION PROCEEDING. This was filed in August 2019 in a case that has ground to a halt. The attorneys for the defendants requested to be removed from the case (possibly for nonpayment by their client Okyanos). This was the last motion filed in the case. The document below discusses the case in depth:

The Bahamas Court-Ordered Liquidation of Okyanos:

The US Eleventh District Appeals Court Upholding the $3.8 Matt and Cathy Feshbach owe the IRS: