Doctors’ friendship breached by failed marijuana business

Two doctors who have been friends since medical school are locked in a legal battle over a failed marijuana business.

Allen Towfigh, a Manhattan sleep specialist, sued Edwin X. Vicioso, a Larchmont anesthesiologist, Jan. 25 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, White Plains, claiming that Vicioso and his wife concealed their assets in bankruptcy filings to defraud him over the failed business.

“That is completely unfounded,” Vicioso”™s attorney, Julie Cvek Curley, said in a telephone interview. “There was nothing improper or secretive.”

Towfigh graduated from Georgetown University School of Medicine in 2004, and is certified in neurology and sleep medicine. Vicioso graduated from Georgetown in 2005, and practices anesthesiology at Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital.

They have been friends personally and professionally for many years, Curley said.

In 2019, Vicioso and his wife, Ann M. Anderson, a nurse, petitioned for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. They declared assets of $2.25 million, consisting mostly of their house in Larchmont, and $2.36 million in liabilities.

They were unable to pay their debts, according to affidavits they filed, in large part because of a failed business venture and the legal fees from a contentious lawsuit over the venture.

The failed business was L&D Holdings, a Tacoma, Washington, company that lost regulatory rights to a marijuana license.

In 2014, according to Towfigh’s complaint, he invested nearly $1.6 million for a 49% interest in SEO Development LLC. SEO was set up to lease property for L&D Holding”™s marijuana business. But when Washington terminated the marijuana license, he charges, Vicioso and Anderson abandoned the project and left him with a “valueless investment.”

In 2015, Towfigh said, he converted a $500,000 loan to an interest in Anderson”™s GreenKissNY, a medical staffing company that was purportedly worth $50 million and was about to file an initial public offering. The stock offering was withdrawn, according to the complaint, leaving Towfigh “holding a worthless 1% in GreenKissNY.”

Curley said the deals were between Towfigh and Anderson. Her client, Vicioso, never signed the deals, therefore has no debtor-creditor relationship and no issue for bankruptcy court.

Anderson”™s bankruptcy attorney did not respond to a request for comment. But Curley said the deals with Anderson were investments, not loans.

“With investments, there is always a risk of failure,” she said, and now Towfigh is suing his friend “because the investments didn”™t do well.”

Towfigh also accuses the couple of concealing assets from creditors.

For instance, SEO Development and several other business entities were not disclosed on the original bankruptcy schedules. The couple listed their home at $2.15 million, whereas Zillow shows it at $3.9 million.

Towfigh alleges that Vicioso”™s medical practice paid $479,476, or 61% of its revenue, to GreenKissNY as management fees in 2017, and then GreenKissNY transferred $213,000 to the couple”™s personal checking account.

Towfigh is asking bankruptcy court to rule that Vicioso and Anderson may not discharge their debts to him. He is represented by Manhattan attorney John P. Campo and Miami attorney Brian P. Miller.