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Southern California drywall mogul Michael Ru Bello, who federal records allege looted his company to support a luxury lifestyle that included a Rolls Royce, thoroughbred race horses and a Napa Valley winery, may have been forced into a corner by a default on an $18 million payment settlement agreement.
Bello Family Vineyards property at 8424 St. Helena Highway, Rutherford. Its sale is a vital part of complying with an agreement with the bankruptcy trustee, but liens and marital problems have made the sale all but impossible.
Bello is listed in bankruptcy documents as the sole owner and manager of the WallDesign drywall construction business which collapsed in the Great Recession. The company filed for Chapter 11 in January 2012 in Federal Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana, CA.
According to the most recent court filing by the bankruptcy trustee:
Debtor Nancy Bello and her husband Michael Bello obtained not less than $18 million in money, property, and services by actual fraud; specifically, by directing Walldesign to make actually fraudulent and other improper transfers of its assets for Nancy and Michael Bello’s direct and indirect personal benefit….
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