Attorneys representing creditors and wronged investors of indicted Sonoma real estate mogul Ken Mattson last month reached a settlement with Socotra Capital, the private lender that financed the bulk of the property portfolio that eventually valued at somewhere near $500 million.
Now, the lawyers are taking aim at another subject of heated debate, as that real estate investment empire has fallen apart: Tim LeFever, Mattson’s childhood friend and longtime business partner.
The judge overseeing Chapter 11 cases for both their defunct partnership, LeFever Mattson Inc., and KS Mattson Partners, owned by Ken Mattson and his wife, Stacy, ordered the mediation on Nov. 21. The talks have yet to be scheduled.
The mediator will be Lee R. Bogdanoff, a retired Los Angeles County Superior Court judge and a veteran trial lawyer with experience litigating complex financial cases. Bogdanoff also mediated the Socotra settlement, which lays out compensation terms for real estate sales.
In his next assignment, he will likely hear two very different portrayals.
In court documents and letters to investors, LeFever has described himself as one of Mattson’s many victims. He is responsible for 61 claims in the bankruptcy case of LeFever Mattson Inc., and another claim he filed against KS Mattson Partners.
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A screenshot of an old television appearance by Tim LeFever.
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A screenshot of an old television appearance by Tim LeFever.
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That picture rings hollow with many of the mom-and-pop investors who helped finance the sprawling real estate investment operation. They believe LeFever is at best negligent, and at worst complicit in what U.S. attorneys allege was a Ponzi scheme engineered by Mattson. He faces nine felony counts altogether of fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice.
The contrasting views could have significant financial implications as the bankruptcy cases play out.
Under the plan of liquidation filed in mid-October, everyone who invested in LeFever Mattson, KS Mattson Partners or any of their related entities is on roughly proportional footing related to size of their investment, and slated to receive a percentage of whatever funds remain after assets are sold off.
But during a July 16 online town hall, organized by the unsecured creditors committee appointed to advocate for investors in the bankruptcy cases (as well as the committee’s legal team), the hosts suggested the playing field may be unbalanced.
“I know a topic of much discussion in the investor group has been, ‘Hey, Ken and Tim, they put in giant claims in the bankruptcy. They are the co-owners of LeFever Mattson Corp., which is a general partner in a lot of these investment partnerships. To the extent that one or both of them committed bad acts that led to us being where we are, why should they get paid anything?’” said Kevin Katari, chair of the creditors committee.
Perhaps they won’t, implied San Francisco attorney Debra Grassgreen.
“Equitable subordination is a concept that if somebody did something bad, then their claim gets put way down to the bottom of that ladder,” Grassgreen told Katari. “Bottom, bottom rung.”
The creditors committee would “absolutely seek to equitably subordinate the claims of Ken and Tim,” she confirmed.
“They may not agree,” she added. “They may fight it.”
“And then we’ll do whatever we need to do,” Katari said, as Grassgreen nodded.
That scenario seems to be playing out now.
LeFever informed the creditors committee that he intends to object to confirmation of the liquidation plan, according to the petition to appoint a mediator. The committee, in turn, “spearheaded an investigation to determine whether the Debtors hold claims against Mr. LeFever,” and now intends to sue him.
The mediation is a last-ditch effort to avoid that outcome.
Neither LeFever nor the San Francisco attorney representing him in mediation, Gregg Ficks, responded to a request for comment.
Katari told The Press Democrat he’s unable to comment on the mediation.
The implosion of LeFever Mattson, and subsequent revelations about Ken Mattson’s pattern of highly irregular transactions, have put LeFever in an uncertain position.
A class-action lawsuit against the two men and their various businesses, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in October 2024, devotes an entire section to LeFever’s role in what it calls “the investment scheme.”
It describes him as an active partner who often sent cover letters on behalf of LeFever Mattson to new investors or when selling properties to roll investors into a partnership agreement. The class-action complaint describes Mattson executing purchase agreements, but notes the documents also were signed by LeFever. That lawsuit, and at least half a dozen others, have been paused by the bankruptcies.
At the same time, LeFever was himself an investor in some of LeFever Mattson’s real estate-driven funds.
He owns half of LeFever Mattson Inc., which directly or indirectly controls about 60 related entities. And either individually or in tandem with his wife, Amy, he owns anywhere from 1.9% to 20% of the total interests in seven of those limited partnerships.
LeFever also asserts in the petition to appoint a mediator that he is owed money from his employment at LeFever Mattson, and has claims against KS Mattson Partners based on that company’s “breaches of partnership agreements, aiding and abetting Mr. Mattson’s breaches of fiduciary duty, and constructive fraud.”
It was LeFever who first publicly flagged problems with LeFever Mattson accounting, and reported them in May 2024 to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice. He later was subpoenaed by the unsecured creditors committee in the bankruptcy cases.
None of that has convinced LeFever Mattson investors of his innocence.
Many of them noticed in August when the Fairfield Christian Reformed Church promoted its annual Summer of Fun Day at the LeFevers’ home in Dixon, complete with brunch, swimming, skits, s’mores and singing around the campfire.
“We’d love to laugh and clap,” the church advertised.
The majority of LeFever Mattson investors are older. Many are retired and living on fixed incomes. Their finances were turned upside down last year, when the monthly “dividend checks” they’d been getting from Ken Mattson for years suddenly stopped coming.
Under these circumstances, some investors said in shared emails and texts, Tim LeFever’s invitation to celebrate felt tone deaf and ostentatious. They will be paying close attention to the upcoming mediation.
Meanwhile, Ken Mattson is navigating his own disputes.
He has claimed in both his criminal and civil proceedings that he is out of money and needs to sell a Piedmont property, owned by wife Stacy, to fund his legal defense. His Oakland-based attorney, Randy Sue Pollock, has framed the matter as a potential violation of Mattson’s 6th Amendment right to counsel.
KS Mattson Partners, which is now being run by a court-appointed neutral party, sees it differently.
The company’s lawyers filed a complaint in October alleging that Mattson paid Pollock a $500,000 retainer out of KS Mattson Partners’ bank account. They want that money returned. Pollock said in court on Nov. 21 that she is currently working pro bono as she and Mattson fight the effort.
You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or [email protected]. On X (Twitter) @Skinny_Post.
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