As the bankruptcy proceeding in U.S. District Court of Northern Ohio in Cleveland over Danny Vegh's, the half-century old retailer of pingpong and pool tables and home furnishings, enters its last rounds, Albert Ratner, former co-chairman and CEO of the former Forest City Enterprises Inc., has surfaced in a central role, Crain's Cleveland Business reported. Ratner, who ran the recently acquired Cleveland-based development firm for decades, is the only secured creditor in the group. Last fall, using the name 50 Public Square LLC, he bought KeyBank's secured debt against the Danny Vegh's business for $355,000. In a court filing, Ratner's attorney said that he bought the debt to help Kathy Hughes, the daughter of Danny Vegh, maintain the 55-year-old family business. Ratner is an investor in Tech Elevator, a coding boot camp operated by Anthony Hughes, Kathy Hughes' husband, and learned about its descent into bankruptcy from him, but had no other interest in the family business. However, things apparently became less friendly after Ratner found how little revenue was left in the business and began to push for liquidation, something the Danny Vegh's business itself agreed to do. The proceeding by DTV Inc., the formal name for the company that Kathy Hughes built on the original business of her father, pingpong champion and media personality Danny Vegh, on Jan. 9 was converted to a chapter 7 liquidation under the U.S. bankruptcy code from a chapter 11 reorganization by Judge Jessica E. Price Smith.
