Ben is a bankruptcy litigation and corporate restructuring veteran with global experience in bankruptcy litigation, financial distress, and special situation trading and investing. His career has been a combination of national law practice, investment banking, and institutional equity and credit investments. He is an internationally recognized authority in film and television production and distribution finance.
Early in his career, Ben served as lead counsel to multiple official committees in public company restructuring matters, including the Chapter 11 cases of Continental Airlines, America West Airlines, and El Paso Electric Company. Later, he joined Salomon Brothers (now Citigroup) as a managing director and head of its investment banking restructuring group, and after that he managed workouts and litigation for a global hedge fund.
He has executive producing credits for over 40 major motion pictures that he financed as part of his management of leveraged film funds on behalf of institutional asset managers and Citigroup. He served on the Supervisory Board of Wild Bunch A.G., a German-listed pan-European film company, and the Board of Directors of Vistas Media Acquisition Company, Inc., a SPAC that successfully completed its acquisition of the top music streaming service in the Middle East.
Ben served as an expert financial and industry adviser to the U.S. Department of Justice in U.S. v. Wolf of Wall Street Motion Picture, et. al., which involved the theft of billions of dollars of sovereign wealth in Malaysia known as the “1MDB scandal” and was the largest civil forfeiture action under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative brought by the Justice Department in its history.
In the area of crisis management and corporate governance, he served as Chief Restructuring Officer and turnaround CEO for NanoMech, Inc., where he led the company through a sale as a going concern in its Delaware Chapter 11 case to Vinmar International, a global chemical distribution company. That case also involved the investigation and settlement of claims against former officers and directors.
Currently, Ben is focused on investigations and litigation arising out of insolvency matters and disputes in the media and entertainment and gaming sectors, as well as other business and contractual disputes.