In any event, in accordance with the provisions of the agreement, Mr. Knepfler was supposed to pay €1.45 million by June 29, 2016; and 2 million euros until August 29, 2016, when he had already paid an advance of 550,000 euros.
Mr. Knepfler did not transfer €1.45 million until June 29, 2016, but an amount that is about 30 percent lower. Even before this date, difficulties were discovered in the transfer of payments. By June 30, 2016, he had transferred only 700,000 euros (instead of 1.45 million). On July 1, 2016, he transferred another 300,000 euros, and remained in debt for another 390,000 euros.
- Against this background, on July 5, 2016, Mr. Nehemiah contacted Mr. Knefler in an email message (Appendix 2 to Nehemiah's affidavit) and noted that "the circumstances in which we find ourselves are known to you as they are. All the more so the implications stemming from the failure to receive the funds on time. This is because such a situation places our company in breaches against third parties, to which the company is obligated on the basis of the agreement between us." In the letter, Mr. Nehemiah added that out of the funds that Mr. Knepfler was supposed to transfer, 390,685 euros were not transferred.
There is no dispute that Mr. Knafler did not transfer this payment even in August of that year. And already here it is clear that the trust between the directors and him has been cracked.
- On August 21, 2026, ADN's board of directors convened for a discussion that dealt with an offer to purchase a property in Germany, which is not relevant to our case (Appendix 32 to the directors' affidavits). Incidentally, the issue of progress in the implementation of the agreement with Mr. Kneffler arose.
In this regard, Adv. Lederman, who represented Mr. Knafler in other contexts, commented that "the purchaser [Mr. Knapfler] did not transfer the balance of the payment to the company as a result of the purchaser not having the amount to transfer. At the moment, the buyer is trying to raise the total amount, in the amount of €2.2 million, from other places. Of this sum, as you may recall, €1.65 million must be paid to Levad, and the debt must also be paid to Phoenix at the time of payment. In his view, the company should move as soon as possible to the stage of realizing its assets in order to reassure the company's creditors" (p. 2 of the minutes).