Zion

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

I. Proceedings Giving Rise to Judgment

Ofek Rachel, Ltd. and M.M.N. Yad David, USA Ltd. (collectively, the judgment creditors) obtained a 2016 judgment from a court in Israel against Suki Ben Zion (Zion). The judgment creditors subsequently filed a lawsuit in New York

All further statutory references are to the Code of Civil Procedure unless otherwise indicated.

2 state court to enforce the Israeli judgment,2 and the New York court issued a 2017 judgment against Zion for $5.5 million.

II. Attempts to Enforce Judgment in California

Despite professing to have no assets to pay the judgment, Zion was still living in a multi-million-dollar condominium in Manhattan, holding valuable property in Brooklyn, sending his three children to an expensive private school in Manhattan, and traveling lavishly. In a post-judgment debtor’s examination and other discovery, Zion admitted that his friend Chaim Cohen (Cohen) was paying all of Zion’s expenses, often with American Express credit cards in Cohen’s name. When the judgment creditors served a document subpoena on Cohen seeking his American Express statements, Cohen filed a motion to quash that…