An ongoing legal dispute between the ownership group of San Francisco’s Transamerica Pyramid and a glitzy members-only club that was supposed to fill the iconic building’s first three floors reached new heights this week, with claims that investments into the group’s holdings were used to fund their “lavish” lifestyles.
Attorneys for the CORE Club moved to amend their complaint— which was filed in a New York Court last year and sought to terminate the club’s lease for the pyramid while accusing building owner Michael Shvo and his partners of “self-dealings” and fraud in regard to the deal — to accuse the Manhattan-based developer and Germany’s largest pension fund of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO.
The amended complaint alleges that Shvo, German government-backed pension fund Bayerische Versorgungskammer, or BVK, and its advisers, Deutsche Finance Group and Deutsche Finance America, orchestrated a “fraudulent scheme” to “wrest ownership and control” of the private social club from its owners — Jennie and Dangene Enterprise — and defraud them of “tens of millions of dollars.” The scheme, as alleged in the complaint, was executed through BSD Partnership, a joint venture formed by the partners to invest in prime real estate throughout the country…