The hedge fund mogul who helped oust former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is being sued by his own mother in a nasty dispute over unpaid debts, The Washington Post has learned.
Spring Owl Asset Management CEO Jason Ader was sued last month by his 81-year-old mother for defaulting on a $13 million mortgage she took out on a luxury townhouse on New York's Upper East Side that her father, who died in 2016, owned. According to state court documents.
Pamela Ader's lawyers allege that her 56-year-old son has defaulted on huge loan payments, leaving his father's estate owed huge amounts of principal and hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest and unpaid taxes.
Court documents did not go into detail about why Adel borrowed the money.
At the time, his popularity was on the rise on Wall Street, fueled by calls from activist shareholders that ultimately led to the downfall of Yahoo's Marissa Mayer and former Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman.
According to the shocking lawsuit, Adele CNBC Contributor The man, who is also known for investing in the casino industry, remained silent about the late mortgage payments.
His mother only found out when she received a call from Bank of America, the lender, according to the filing.
Pamela claims she begged her defaulting son to pay off his debts and stop the “cash drain” — he owes Bank of America $75,000 a month, according to the lawsuit — but Jason replied he didn't have the money, according to court documents.
“During one call, Jason's attorney asserted that Jason was out of funds and would be unable to cure such default, and the parties' attorneys discussed taking steps to sell the property expeditiously,” the documents state.
According to court documents, Pamela's attorney prepared a contract to sell the luxury home on East 73rd Street, “but Jason was evasive and refused to execute the contract,” the lawsuit states.
An attorney for the Adder family matriarch did not respond to The Washington Post's request for comment. Jason has not yet named a lawyer in the case. Adder's brother, Jason, did not respond to calls and messages seeking comment.
This is not the first time signs of conflict between mother and son have emerged in court. Another fraud case In the lawsuit filed against Adar, Pamela alleged that she had hired the lawyers to try to sell her $16 million in shares in her son's hedge fund.
In the lawsuit, which is still ongoing, Austrian billionaire Harald McPike alleges that Ader defrauded him out of $25 million in a 2021 contract to back a $2.6 billion bid to buy the Philippines' largest casino.
The ill-fated deal was revealed in a Sept. 11 letter to Spring Owl investors obtained by The Washington Post, in which the company warned it faced “significant difficulties” in recouping its investments. The letter, signed by Ader and partner Barry Koenig, also criticized a Delaware judge who refused to issue an order to terminate the Philippine deal.
The two also criticized Nevada regulators for refusing to issue a casino license to GameCo, a company in which Ader had decided to invest.
One irate Spring Owl investor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said backers are trying in vain to find out what happened to their money.
“We've only received false replies. There have been multiple accusations of fraud and misconduct. And now he's being sued by his own mother after his father passed away,” his client complained.
“I feel like I've invested in the world's worst hedge fund with the world's worst son,” the frustrated investor added, “while my son is living the lavish lifestyle in Miami.”
Florida property records show Adele lives in a $6 million luxury condo in the same Miami tower where MLS club Inter Miami owner and British soccer star David Beckham also owns a luxury residence.
He's a regular on the city's party scene, always in the company of his attractive new partner, Hana, who is 10 years younger than him.
Meanwhile, the wealthy man continues to fight with his second wife, Julie, over the terms of their divorce and their four children.
June 6, New York County Supreme Court ruling Last year, it emerged that the under-fire hedge fund had refused to make agreed child support payments.
“Despite the provisions of the parties' prenuptial agreement and multiple court orders, the father continually interfered by refusing to pay child support from third parties, such as private tutors, promptly or by failing to pay at all,” the ruling said.
Julie Adar's lawyer did not respond to The Washington Post's request for comment.
Ader co-founded Spring Owl in 2013 after making a name for himself on Wall Street as a gaming analyst in the 1990s. He also previously served on the board of Las Vegas Sands, the Nevada-based casino giant founded by the late Sheldon Adelson.
Spring Owl was originally founded in New York, but its new headquarters is in 701 Brickell, a luxury skyscraper in downtown Miami, according to an SEC filing in 2023. No one answered the phone when The Washington Post called Friday afternoon.
Richard Ader, who made his fortune by founding U.S. Realty Advisors, which said it managed $18 billion in assets across the United States, died in September last year at the age of 81. His widow's lawsuit did not disclose how much of his estate he will inherit.
Outraged Spring Owl investors warned that Jason could face further legal trouble unless he paid up the cash.
“There's a lot of talk among investors about class action lawsuits,” the source said. “You could tell people were very concerned.”
McPike, 65, accused the hedge fund boss of defrauding him in the failed merger of his company, 26 Capital Special Acquisition Company, with casino owner Universal Entertainment of Japan and simply pocketing the money for “his own personal purposes”.
A Delaware judge last year The acquisition did not go through and plans to list Okada Manila on the New York Stock Exchange for $2.6 billion fell through.
Another investor, Alex Eisman, was negotiating a separate casino deal with an investment firm backed by former Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez.
They had planned a concert with his then-fiancée Jennifer Lopez, but those plans fell through when the celebrity couple split in 2021. The former MLB star and Grammy-nominated man have not been accused of any wrongdoing.
But Eiseman also advised Jason Ader on his bid and reportedly had a secret agreement with Spring Owl's CEO to buy a 60% stake in the casino for just $4.5 million — far less than McPike's investment.
According to court documents, Eisman's duplicative dealings were one of the reasons a Delaware court did not approve the Adder acquisition.
The takeover drama took a bizarre turn in 2022 when the ousted founder, Japanese businessman Kazuo Okada, used armed guards to storm the casino grounds and violently retake control of the casino.
The Philippine Supreme Court then dismissed the 81-year-old Okada's lawsuit in November 2023, recognising Universal, a Japanese gaming company that has no ties to the American music giant, as the rightful owner.
