UPDATE, 11AM:
Through a spokesperson, Bill Moses referred inquiries to Edward B. MacMahon, Jr., a Middleburg attorney who is representing Moses and Patricia Kluge in Farm Credit’s civil suit. “We’ll file an answer in the next 21 days,” MacMahon says, adding, “those allegations are ridiculous.”
While MacMahon acknowledges they transferred 7.18 acres into a trust for Kluge’s son, John W. Kluge, Jr., he says, “they have not fraudulently transferred anything. Farm Credit is not the only person in the world interested in that Albemarle County property.”
On the matter of unpaid property taxes, MacMahon says he “doesn’t know anything about that.”
Will Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard find a white knight before the auction scheduled for next month? “They’re trying everything they can to get strategic partners to keep the winery open,” MacMahon says. “The bank had promised that they would keep the winery open, and [Moses and Kluge] were surprised that they would instead do everything they could to shut down operations.”
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More troubles for Patricia Kluge and Bill Moses? A weekend report from NBC 29 puts Kluge and Moses at the top of the list of parties that owe Albemarle County unpaid property taxes. According to the TV station, Kluge and Moses are in arrears for $86,000. This news comes on top of earlier reports that Farm Credit of the Virginias has foreclosed on Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard. With a lien totaling $34.8 million, the bank plans to auction the property and related equipment on December 8. Additionally, the bank has filed a civil suit against Kluge and Moses alleging a fraudulent transfer of property to her son’s trust in the midst of loan-restructuring negotiations. Moses did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the claim of unpaid property taxes nor the civil suit. For more on Kluge’s recent financial troubles, click here.
