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Case 25-23251-MEH Doc 47-1 Filed 01/05/26 Entered 01/05/26 16:34:06 Desc
Exhibit 1 - Declaration of Leonard A. Bennett Esq. Page 6 of 30
did not oppose or object, and every party there – including the City of Newport News, Virginia –
supported the sale.
16. A collateral hearing was also set for December 16, 2025 for the sole purpose of
obtaining the state court’s pro forma approval of the creation of a Qualified Settlement Fund for
the Seaview Tenants, ending the need to have 95 separate lay tenants individually approve and
confirm approval of settlement terms. That hearing was scheduled for just minutes as there were
no parties with any interest other than the Seaview Tenants, every one of which had approved the
terms. However, either misunderstanding the subject of the hearing – the Sale already approved
and the Debtor property long ago possessed by the Receiver – Debtor filed this Bankruptcy and
rushed copies of the filing to me as counsel for the Seaview Tenants.
17. I attended and took the deposition of Benjamin Weinstein taken on October 27,
2025, in the separate tenants’ civil action. In that sworn testimony, Mr. Weinstein made several
notable admissions relevant to this bankruptcy. First, he confirmed the lack of any meaningful
corporate formalities or governance at Seaview Apartments, LLC. Id., 61:8-13. When asked about
the company’s structure, Mr. Weinstein admitted that Seaview has no officers such as a president
and that, as an LLC wholly owned by him, it never held annual meetings or similar corporate
proceedings. Id., 61:8-13, 91:15-92:24. He effectively acknowledged that Seaview was run out of
his own office without the usual formalities of a separate business organization. Weinstein Dep.,
61:8-13. Mr. Weinstein also could not recall whether Seaview (or its affiliate BlueRise Group) had
been formally canceled by the State Corporation Commission for failure to file annual reports or
fees, though records show BlueRise was terminated in early 2023 for non-compliance. Id., 92:12-
24. These facts underscore that Mr. Weinstein treated the “Seaview” entity as indistinguishable
from himself and did not observe basic corporate separateness.
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