Minnesota Vikings owners ordered to pay $2 million to business partners
A Superior Court judge on Friday denied a bid by the Wilf family, owners of the Minnesota Vikings, to overturn a ruling that ordered them to pay a group of former business partners $2 million, according to Bill Wichert of NJ.com.
The Wilf's most recent suit aimed to overturn a decision made in August last year by a private arbitrator that ruled the Wilf family had violated a joint venture agreement by stopping construction on a housing project in Livingston, NJ.
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On Friday, members of the Mitschele family, Wilf's former partners who brought the suit, were again found to be owed reimbursement of their capital contribution to the project.
Despite Judge Thomas Moore's latest ruling, representatives for Zygmunt "Zygi" Wilf, his brother Mark and their cousin Leonard have indicated that the family will pursue another appeal, arguing that the Mitschele family has been compensated already.
According to the Vikings, Zygi Wilf is team chairman, while Mark is team president and Leonard Wilf is vice chairman. Zygi Wilf, who is Minnesota's principle owner, is also the head of the Wilf family's real estate business, based in Short Hills, NJ.
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In 2013, a judge in Morris County, NJ, found that the Wilf family owed a different set of business partners $110 million in a lawsuit filed over another housing development. In that case, the judge found that the Wilfs cheated their partners out of revenues from an apartment complex for over 20 years.
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