Former Granville Homes exec alleges CEO Assemi skirted court supervision in land buy
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Toncheff alleges Assemi secretly bought land his family lost in defaulted loans case.
- Toncheff believed alleged deal circumvented federal court’s supervision.
- Granville and Assemi deny allegations and allege Toncheff is trying to ‘extort money.’
A former Granville Homes executive has accused CEO Darius Assemi of circumventing a federal court’s supervision by secretly buying — with up to $16 million of the company’s money — a west Fresno ranch his family had lost it in its massive defaulted loans case.
A court-appointed receiver sold the 330-acre Mission Ranch to an LLC organized by long-time Assemi family associate in January for an estimated $14 million. A federally chartered lender consented to the sale.
Former Granville Homes CFO Ryan Toncheff is alleging in a wrongful termination lawsuit, first reported by the nonprofit newsroom Fresnoland, that the LLC transferred its ownership to entities controlled by Assemi after the sale.
“This personal acquisition was done out of a federal court-supervised receivership, circumventing the federally chartered lender, of which conduct Plaintiff (Toncheff) reasonably and in good faith believed constituted violations of federal and state law,” the complaint says.
Granville has been owned solely by Darius Assemi since 2017. In recent years, as the family’s farms defaulted on $700 million in loans and began losing thousands of acres, he’s asserted the housing construction company is run independently of the family’s agricultural operations.
Toncheff is also alleging he discovered Granville is cashflow insolvent and has inaccurately represented its financial condition to lenders. His complaint says he was fired in retaliation June 10 after voicing his concerns, refusing involvement in the Mission Ranch purchase and declining to certify what he says are “inaccurate” financial statements.
Howard Sagaser, Granville Homes’ attorney, said in an email that the company denies Toncheff’s allegations.
In his own statement, Assemi said Toncheff is a “disgruntled employee” who expected expensive perks and whose work “did not justify his continued employment.”
He added that his family’s fallen farming operations were managed by his brother Farid Assemi and denied the idea his home building company is insolvent.
“Granville Homes has been and continues to be a vibrant and financially healthy company,” he said.
Toncheff wants a jury trial and is asking the court to compensate him for damages. Granville Homes and Assemi intend to demand arbitration outside of court.
Mission Ranch sold to LLC
The Assemi family started buying Mission Ranch land in 2013 and persuaded the City Council to allow farming on the residentially zoned west Fresno property.
As a result of the family’s farming troubles, court-appointed receiver Lance Miller sold the ranch for an estimated $14 million to Running Stallion Ranch LLC on Jan. 9. State business records show the LLC had been organized just weeks prior by Nader Malakan, CEO of Fresno’s Malakan Diamond Company and a long-time business associate of the Assemis. Malakan did not respond to The Bee’s request for comment for this story.
Toncheff’s complaint says he believes the deal was set up for Darius Assemi to become the land’s owner while keeping his involvement “out of the public record.” Darius Assemi used between $14 million and $16 million of Granville Homes’ operating cash to make the purchase through Running Stallion, the complaint alleges.
Toncheff also alleges Assemi “held sole authority to approve” outgoing wires at Granville Homes, so the money to buy the ranch could not have been used without his OK.
Running Stallion later transferred its membership to entities “owned or controlled” by Assemi, including Photo Finish LLC and Grass Valley Bluffs Inc., the complaint alleges.
Toncheff says in his complaint that he used methods employed by commercial lenders to evaluate Granville Homes’ financial condition and found it doesn’t have the cash to pay all of its debts — which include not only Granville Homes’ obligations but also those of its affiliated, land-holding entities.
The company has not disclosed to lenders a full picture of those debt obligations, Toncheff’s complaint alleges.
“No single lender had visibility into the full aggregate debt burden,” the complaint says.
In his statement, Assemi said the home building and land development industries are “experiencing difficult conditions.” But he added Granville Homes has remained financially healthy through the “disposition of certain assets and the acquisition of others.
Granville Homes alleges ex-CFO trying to ‘improperly extort money’
In May, after he says he told the company he found it to be insolvent, Toncheff alleges he was “accused of producing inaccurate or distorted work” and was “subjected to humiliation.”
He was stripped of CFO duties, placed on administrative leave “without explanation” and then fired June 10, Toncheff alleges.
In a document demanding arbitration, Assemi and Granville Homes are accusing Toncheff of “misuse of the judicial process to improperly extort money,” among other claims. The document says arbitration is required by a previous contractual agreement between Toncheff and Granville Homes.
It questions Toncheff’s qualifications, alleges he repeatedly failed to perform CFO duties and accuses him of using artificial intelligence to generate ”inaccurate and misleading data.” It also alleges he told other staff “he should be gifted” homes by the company and “given ownership interest” in it.
Matthew Ruggles, attorney for Toncheff, called those accusations against Toncheff “bogus.”
“We contend those are all legally fatally flawed and will almost certainly all be dismissed,” he said.
