Suit: Stoever fraudulently transferred LLC interests

Reno investor Mark Combs won a lawsuit in which he claimed developer Lizanne Stoever improperly diverted funds from the limited partnership that owned a South Meadows retail center.

Now Combs is back in court with a new complaint: Stoever, he says, shuffled her interest in an industrial project to her ex-husband in an effort to avoid paying Combs the money he's owed from his previous court victory.

An attorney for Stoever didn't return a phone call asking for the developer's side of the dispute. Stoever is president and chief executive officer of The Magnolia Companies, a Reno-based office, industrial and retail developer.

In a case filed on Jan. 4, Combs' attorney, Stephen Mollath of Reno, contends that Stoever transferred her interest in three limited partnerships to her former husband, Ted Stoever.

The limited partnerships were involved in development of an industrial-flex project at Mill Street and McCarran Boulevard in east Reno. Like other projects developed by Stoever, the industrial buildings carried the Magnolia brand.

The transfer from Lizanne Stoever to Ted Stoever, Mollath contends, occurred just a day after an Oct. 25 court hearing at which Washoe District Judge Brent Allen agreed to attach Stoever's interest in the industrial property.

A few weeks earlier, Combs had won a $1.68 million judgment against Stoever after he contended she embezzled money from the limited-liability corporation that developed Magnolia Commons, a south-Reno retail center.

A company headed by Combs owned a 70.5 percent interest in that center. Lizanne Stoever owned 25 percent.

In that case, Judge Allen agreed with Combs' contentions, ruling that Stoever had "no legal or factual defense" to Combs' complaint. The judge ruled that Lizanne Stoever had wrongly converted, embezzled or used money from a construction loan for the retail project for her own purposes.

A day before the industrial property was to be attached, Lizanne Stoever said later, she transferred her interests in the industrial property to settle the terms of her 2004 divorce agreement with Ted Stoever.

In court documents, Combs' lawyer calls this transfer "a sham" and questions why no one mentioned the transfer during a court hearing the day after the transfer took place.

Besides, Mollath says, the transfer would violate a loan agreement with Nevada State Bank Stoever, he says, owes the bank $300,000 as well as the operating agreement of the LLC that owned the industrial project.

A deal is in the works to sell the industrial property to a third party.

Combs wants a judge to set aside the transfer between Stoever and her ex-husband and order that a pending sale of the industrial property be completed, so that Combs can get his money from the sale proceeds.