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Declan Ganley ordered by New York court to pay $20,000 a month to former business partner

Rivada Networks founder in bitter legal dispute with New York investor David Shuman, who secured default debt judgment estimated at $20m

Declan Ganley has claimed that the value of shares in Rivada he sold, and which were bought by Mr Shuman, were sufficient to settle the debt. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons

Barry J Whyte
Sat May 11 2024 - 06:00

Declan Ganley, the founder of Rivada Networks, has been ordered by a New York court to pay $20,000 (€18,600) a month to settle debt owed to a former business partner.

It is the latest development in a bitter legal dispute between Mr Ganley and David Shuman, a New York investor who is also shareholder in technology group Rivada Networks, over a default debt judgment Mr Shuman secured against him.

The value of that judgment, which was secured in 2021, is now estimated to stand at $20 million after interest.

Mr Ganley has already had to turn over a significant number of personal assets to satisfy the default judgment. The assets have included several companies, a pub in Galway, four acres of land and a number of vehicles.

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He has also had to sell off shares in Rivada, which were later bought at auction by Mr Shuman. Mr Ganley claimed that the value of those shares were sufficient to settle the debt, but earlier this year judge Jennifer Schecter dismissed that suggestion.

In a ruling in March she said that there was “no credible evidence” to support that assertion.

Judge Schecter, of the supreme court of New York, ruled last week that Mr Ganley had enough income to pay monthly instalments to satisfy the debt judgment.

Mr Shuman’s lawyers had also asked the judge to effectively garnish Mr Ganley’s wages from Rivada by way of a plan to pay back the debt in instalments.

Mr Shuman’s lawyers argued that Mr Ganley’s “disclosed salary of $360,000 is artificially low” and that the company was paying Mr Ganley’s credit card balance and his legal expenses. The lawyers concluded that Mr Ganley “has no requirements on his income whatsoever, since all his room and board is provided for by his spouse, and all of his travel and legal expenses are paid for by Rivada”.

In her order, judge Schecter wrote that Mr Shuman’s lawyers “had shown that [Ganley] was indeed receiving such money and that he ‘is attempting to impede the judgment creditor by rendering services without adequate compensation’ due to the amount and manner he is being compensated as CEO of Rivada”.

Based on Mr Ganley’s testimony in a recent deposition, judge Schecter concluded that “it would be appropriate for him to pay $20,000 per month” to Mr Shuman, “given his substantial compensation, even after taxes, and discounting some of his expenses that are beyond his ‘reasonable requirements’”.

[ Court dismisses Declan Ganley’s claim that Rivada shares cover US debt judgment ]

However, she did not grant Mr Shuman’s motion to freeze all of Mr Ganley’s assets, arguing that the claim “lacks sufficient factual and legal support”.

The payments will commence on June 1st, 2024, she ordered, and will continue “until such time that the judgment in this action is satisfied”.

Mr Ganley has repeatedly argued in various filings that Mr Shuman should not be allowed to pursue the claim, arguing that the debt has already been paid back and that it is “black letter law that a creditor cannot get double recovery from a single debt”.

When contacted by The Irish Times, a spokesman for Mr Ganley said: “We have provided irrefutable proof, confirmations of payments and witness testimony from multiple and highly credible third parties that the debt that was the subject of this default judgment had already been fully repaid before Shuman even sought a judgment.”

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