RAJ v Cherng Lawsuit. UPDATE: RAJ withdraws lawsuit, sale remains on track

[DusterBuster]

Marang touched on this in his Jacked Ramsey's pod. He essentially said who he's talked to who know this situation a bit and situations like it, he doesn't believe this will slow down the sale of the team OR who's involved (meaning the Cherngs). He did say that with the caveat that "things can change" and referenced the Clippers/Pablo saga as new material keeps dropping... but, he said from what he's heard and who he's talked to, it leads him to believe that as it stands, this will go through the court system and the sale will go through regardless on it's current timeline that everyone expects.

So take that for what it is.

I do wonder if there is some legal loopholes here the Cherngs could get around? The agreement seemed to be that they wouldn't be with any other group bidding for the Blazers. They - seemingly - didn't join the Dundon group on after they were announced as the new owners by the Vulcans. So if they joined the Dundon group after they already were already selected, that would mean the Cherngs weren't part of another group competing for the Blazers. The competition portion was complete, Dundon won. They joined after it seems.

This all above could be 10000% wrong, just piecing together what little there is, but that could be the way around the agreement they signed with the RAJ Group. The Cherngs seemed determined to be owners of the Blazers regardless of who was going to be the face / governor. The seemingly got wind the Allen's weren't leaning their way and/or just didn't like how the relationship was going with RAJ. Once the deal was struck with Dundon, then the Cherngs agreed to be a part of his group.

Now... the sticky part likely comes in place of what kind of contact the Cherngs had with Dundon before the deal was complete. If there were backdoor conversations (which seem highly likely) before Dundon and the Allen Estate came to an agreement and it was a "competition", then it could get dicey. But if it's all he-said-she-said, that seems unlikely to stick in court.

But who knows, this is all just speculation.

[Wizenheimer]

I think there's a possibility, maybe/probably it's remote, that the Cherngs will be prevented from being part owners of the Blazers until the lawsuit is settled. Abd if the sale is delayed accordingly this lawsuit could simply be a form of legal leverage by RAJ to extract a few million from the Cherngs and settle. Again, that would be billionaires vs billionaires doing billionaire things

EDIT: I also don't see anything all that slimey about what the Cherngs did--they really want to be part of the ownership group, and when it was discovered that the Raj offer wasn't going to be accepted, they switched teams. Should they have signed an exclusivity contract (If they even did)? Of course not. But if anything it just tells me that they really want to be part of ownership--which is a good thing, probably.

I'm going to take a different tack on this. I spent over 30 years as a contractor; mostly remodeling, but a couple of development projects

so, it would be kind of the opposite direction of this Blazer auction in that I was working to come up with lower bids than the competition, rather than a higher bid for the Blazers

and there were times when I worked with another contractor to put together a more complicated bid on a bigger project. If myself and another contractor did work together and come up with a detailed bid....and then that same contractor took the terms of that bid to another contractor and used it to put together a better bid, I'd have been extremely pissed off. And depending on the circumstances I might have had grounds for a lawsuit

yeah, it would have been tiny small potatoes compared to a 4.25B bid, but it's all relative

and the thing is we don't know yet if this is a case of RAJ + sour grapes. Or if it's a case that the Cherngs took what they knew about the RAJ bid and helped Dundon make a stronger bid. I mean, there doesn't seem to be much mystery to the notion that the Cherngs were part of the RAJ bid; and now are part of the Dundon bid.

[zzaj]

I think there's a possibility, maybe/probably it's remote, that the Cherngs will be prevented from being part owners of the Blazers until the lawsuit is settled. Abd if the sale is delayed accordingly this lawsuit could simply be a form of legal leverage by RAJ to extract a few million from the Cherngs and settle. Again, that would be billionaires vs billionaires doing billionaire things

EDIT: I also don't see anything all that slimey about what the Cherngs did--they really want to be part of the ownership group, and when it was discovered that the Raj offer wasn't going to be accepted, they switched teams. Should they have signed an exclusivity contract (If they even did)? Of course not. But if anything it just tells me that they really want to be part of ownership--which is a good thing, probably.

I'm going to take a different tack on this. I spent over 30 years as a contractor; mostly remodeling, but a couple of development projects

so, it would be kind of the opposite direction of this Blazer auction in that I was working to come up with lower bids than the competition, rather than a higher bid for the Blazers

and there were times when I worked with another contractor to put together a more complicated bid on a bigger project. If myself and another contractor did work together and come up with a detailed bid....and then that same contractor took the terms of that bid to another contractor and used it to put together a better bid, I'd have been extremely pissed off. And depending on the circumstances I might have had grounds for a lawsuit

yeah, it would have been tiny small potatoes compared to a 4.25B bid, but it's all relative

and the thing is we don't know yet if this is a case of RAJ + sour grapes. Or if it's a case that the Cherngs took what they knew about the RAJ bid and helped Dundon make a stronger bid. I mean, there doesn't seem to be much mystery to the notion that the Cherngs were part of the RAJ bid; and now are part of the Dundon bid.

Well, Wiz...as part of your bid, what if you used a flooring company, and you lost the bid but the winning bidder used the same flooring company? Would you really hold that against the flooring company? I recognize it's not exactly apples to apples...but you'll see my point. The flooring company is just trying to make a buck like the rest of the billionaire flooring companies. lol.
Now, if the flooring company changed their fee for the winning bidder (or something like that)...then yeah, that's a problem. I guess we'll find out as time goes on.

Honestly, I don't really care about this...even though I'd like the team to change ownership ASAP. I just still don't really see the benefit of the RAJ group at this point...

[Pattycakes]

Just looked at their website from 2004 and realized exactly why these scrubs have nothing better to do than harass actual professionals.

http://rajcapital.co/rajsports

[Wizenheimer]

I think there's a possibility, maybe/probably it's remote, that the Cherngs will be prevented from being part owners of the Blazers until the lawsuit is settled. Abd if the sale is delayed accordingly this lawsuit could simply be a form of legal leverage by RAJ to extract a few million from the Cherngs and settle. Again, that would be billionaires vs billionaires doing billionaire things

EDIT: I also don't see anything all that slimey about what the Cherngs did--they really want to be part of the ownership group, and when it was discovered that the Raj offer wasn't going to be accepted, they switched teams. Should they have signed an exclusivity contract (If they even did)? Of course not. But if anything it just tells me that they really want to be part of ownership--which is a good thing, probably.

I'm going to take a different tack on this. I spent over 30 years as a contractor; mostly remodeling, but a couple of development projects

so, it would be kind of the opposite direction of this Blazer auction in that I was working to come up with lower bids than the competition, rather than a higher bid for the Blazers

and there were times when I worked with another contractor to put together a more complicated bid on a bigger project. If myself and another contractor did work together and come up with a detailed bid....and then that same contractor took the terms of that bid to another contractor and used it to put together a better bid, I'd have been extremely pissed off. And depending on the circumstances I might have had grounds for a lawsuit

yeah, it would have been tiny small potatoes compared to a 4.25B bid, but it's all relative

and the thing is we don't know yet if this is a case of RAJ + sour grapes. Or if it's a case that the Cherngs took what they knew about the RAJ bid and helped Dundon make a stronger bid. I mean, there doesn't seem to be much mystery to the notion that the Cherngs were part of the RAJ bid; and now are part of the Dundon bid.

Well, Wiz...as part of your bid, what if you used a flooring company, and you lost the bid but the winning bidder used the same flooring company? Would you really hold that against the flooring company? I recognize it's not exactly apples to apples...but you'll see my point. The flooring company is just trying to make a buck like the rest of the billionaire flooring companies. lol.
Now, if the flooring company changed their fee for the winning bidder (or something like that)...then yeah, that's a problem. I guess we'll find out as time goes on.

Honestly, I don't really care about this...even though I'd like the team to change ownership ASAP. I just still don't really see the benefit of the RAJ group at this point...

if I worked out a contract with that flooring company specifying particulars of responsibilities and profit splits as part of a bid....and that flooring company took that information to another remodeling contractor and the two of them used that inside information to submit a lower bid, yeah, I'd be pissed and I'd likely have grounds for a lawsuit. There is a legal definition of bad faith, and what that flooring company did would definitely qualify as bad faith

and yeah, this is kind of a awkward analogy to what may be happening in this lawsuit. But what I'm suspicious of is that the Cherngs were a major part of the Raj bid on Sept 5. And on Sept 12, they were a major part of the Dundon bid. Maybe the RAJ owners were stupid and had incompetent lawyers, but if they were relying on the Cherngs for an integral share of the financing I'd imagine they did have some sort of exclusivity agreement and maybe a non-compete. Whether or not that agreement, if it exists, will withstand legal scrutiny, I don't know, but I am a little skeptical about the Cherngs

[tester551]

I think there's a possibility, maybe/probably it's remote, that the Cherngs will be prevented from being part owners of the Blazers until the lawsuit is settled. Abd if the sale is delayed accordingly this lawsuit could simply be a form of legal leverage by RAJ to extract a few million from the Cherngs and settle. Again, that would be billionaires vs billionaires doing billionaire things



I'm going to take a different tack on this. I spent over 30 years as a contractor; mostly remodeling, but a couple of development projects

so, it would be kind of the opposite direction of this Blazer auction in that I was working to come up with lower bids than the competition, rather than a higher bid for the Blazers

and there were times when I worked with another contractor to put together a more complicated bid on a bigger project. If myself and another contractor did work together and come up with a detailed bid....and then that same contractor took the terms of that bid to another contractor and used it to put together a better bid, I'd have been extremely pissed off. And depending on the circumstances I might have had grounds for a lawsuit

yeah, it would have been tiny small potatoes compared to a 4.25B bid, but it's all relative

and the thing is we don't know yet if this is a case of RAJ + sour grapes. Or if it's a case that the Cherngs took what they knew about the RAJ bid and helped Dundon make a stronger bid. I mean, there doesn't seem to be much mystery to the notion that the Cherngs were part of the RAJ bid; and now are part of the Dundon bid.

Well, Wiz...as part of your bid, what if you used a flooring company, and you lost the bid but the winning bidder used the same flooring company? Would you really hold that against the flooring company? I recognize it's not exactly apples to apples...but you'll see my point. The flooring company is just trying to make a buck like the rest of the billionaire flooring companies. lol.
Now, if the flooring company changed their fee for the winning bidder (or something like that)...then yeah, that's a problem. I guess we'll find out as time goes on.

Honestly, I don't really care about this...even though I'd like the team to change ownership ASAP. I just still don't really see the benefit of the RAJ group at this point...

if I worked out a contract with that flooring company specifying particulars of responsibilities and profit splits as part of a bid....and that flooring company took that information to another remodeling contractor and the two of them used that inside information to submit a lower bid, yeah, I'd be pissed and I'd likely have grounds for a lawsuit. There is a legal definition of bad faith, and what that flooring company did would definitely qualify as bad faith

and yeah, this is kind of a awkward analogy to what may be happening in this lawsuit. But what I'm suspicious of is that the Cherngs were a major part of the Raj bid on Sept 5. And on Sept 12, they were a major part of the Dundon bid. Maybe the RAJ owners were stupid and had incompetent lawyers, but if they were relying on the Cherngs for an integral share of the financing I'd imagine they did have some sort of exclusivity agreement and maybe a non-compete. Whether or not that agreement, if it exists, will withstand legal scrutiny, I don't know, but I am a little skeptical about the Cherngs

I completely agree with your premise here, but I think your dates are wrong.

The exclusivity agreement was signed late July. Mid August (12th?) Blazers announced that they have come to terms with Dundon (ie- he won the bid & was named the Apparent Low Bidder). The Due Diligence period began to dot all the "I"s and cross all the "T"s and ensure that everything was in order. That period ended by September 12th where Dundon's earnest money likely went hard.

After that August 12th date, there was nothing RAJ could do to 'win' the purchase contract. The only hope they had was if Dundon's financing fell through, or if his team decided to walk away.

So any communication Cherngs had with Dundon after that mid-August date is likely irrelevant. It definitely is not a good look for the Cherngs.... but if they did not have any communications prior to mid-August -> I don't see how the RAJ team was harmed.

Going back to your flooring company scenario. The competing remodeling contractor wins the bid. He decides to change up his team and replaces the flooring contractor. Would you not jump at the opportunity to do the work and change teams - even though you were part of the loosing team?

[Wizenheimer]

I completely agree with your premise here, but I think your dates are wrong.

The exclusivity agreement was signed late July. Mid August (12th?) Blazers announced that they have come to terms with Dundon (ie- he won the bid & was named the Apparent Low Bidder). The Due Diligence period began to dot all the "I"s and cross all the "T"s and ensure that everything was in order. That period ended by September 12th where Dundon's earnest money likely went hard.

After that August 12th date, there was nothing RAJ could do to 'win' the purchase contract. The only hope they had was if Dundon's financing fell through, or if his team decided to walk away.

So any communication Cherngs had with Dundon after that mid-August date is likely irrelevant. It definitely is not a good look for the Cherngs.... but if they did not have any communications prior to mid-August -> I don't see how the RAJ team was harmed.

I was going by the article that Duster linked:

"The suit says the Cherngs were involved with RAJ as late as Sept 5. The week prior, Aug 28, RAJ and Cherngs had a falling out after a meeting. The Cherngs told their reps at the meeting to cease discussions and leave the meeting. That same morning, Alex Bhathal (half of the siblings who run RAJ) ask Andrew Cherng if he was part of the Dundon group, to which Andrew (according to Alex's version of events) reportedly “explicitly assured Bhathal that defendants were not in discussions with Dundon’s group and had no plans to do so.” The suit says that Cherng went further and said that although he wasn’t “quite there yet” on the deal, RAJ could report the Cherng Family Trust as one of its co-investors to the NBA."

now, this is obviously the RAJ narrative of events. The Cherngs will likely have a different narrative. There doesn't seem to be much dispute that the Cherngs signed some form of agreement with RAJ. Whether or not this will monkey-wrench the Cherngs involvement is unknown

Going back to your flooring company scenario. The competing remodeling contractor wins the bid. He decides to change up his team and replaces the flooring contractor. Would you not jump at the opportunity to do the work and change teams - even though you were part of the loosing team?

that isn't what is alleged to have happened though. In this already strained analogy, my company and the flooring company have signed a contract outlining responsibilities and benefits to each party prior to submitting a bid. After submitting the bid, the flooring company broke the terms of out contract and went to a competing remodeling company and gave them inside information that allowed the two of them to submit a lower bid

in reality, I believe there was only one time that I worked with another contractor in submitting a bid (unsuccessful). I was a small potatoes contractor and had enough experience that when I was submitting a bid I could pretty closely calculate what the plumbing, electrical, site work, roofing, etc would cost. I almost never bothered to get a price from a sub-contractor. And I wrote pretty ironclad contracts with customers to cover those 'unseen' costs. You never know if, and how much dry rot you're discover. And sometimes you can't be sure about what you have to do to bring a remodel up to code

a 4B bid to buy something is a completely different animal and it kind of looks like the Cherngs were leveraging their willingness to invest against both RAJ and Dundon

[tester551]

I completely agree with your premise here, but I think your dates are wrong.

The exclusivity agreement was signed late July. Mid August (12th?) Blazers announced that they have come to terms with Dundon (ie- he won the bid & was named the Apparent Low Bidder). The Due Diligence period began to dot all the "I"s and cross all the "T"s and ensure that everything was in order. That period ended by September 12th where Dundon's earnest money likely went hard.

After that August 12th date, there was nothing RAJ could do to 'win' the purchase contract. The only hope they had was if Dundon's financing fell through, or if his team decided to walk away.

So any communication Cherngs had with Dundon after that mid-August date is likely irrelevant. It definitely is not a good look for the Cherngs.... but if they did not have any communications prior to mid-August -> I don't see how the RAJ team was harmed.

I was going by the article that Duster linked:

"The suit says the Cherngs were involved with RAJ as late as Sept 5. The week prior, Aug 28, RAJ and Cherngs had a falling out after a meeting. The Cherngs told their reps at the meeting to cease discussions and leave the meeting. That same morning, Alex Bhathal (half of the siblings who run RAJ) ask Andrew Cherng if he was part of the Dundon group, to which Andrew (according to Alex's version of events) reportedly “explicitly assured Bhathal that defendants were not in discussions with Dundon’s group and had no plans to do so.” The suit says that Cherng went further and said that although he wasn’t “quite there yet” on the deal, RAJ could report the Cherng Family Trust as one of its co-investors to the NBA."

now, this is obviously the RAJ narrative of events. The Cherngs will likely have a different narrative. There doesn't seem to be much dispute that the Cherngs signed some form of agreement with RAJ. Whether or not this will monkey-wrench the Cherngs involvement is unknown

Going back to your flooring company scenario. The competing remodeling contractor wins the bid. He decides to change up his team and replaces the flooring contractor. Would you not jump at the opportunity to do the work and change teams - even though you were part of the loosing team?

that isn't what is alleged to have happened though. In this already strained analogy, my company and the flooring company have signed a contract outlining responsibilities and benefits to each party prior to submitting a bid. After submitting the bid, the flooring company broke the terms of out contract and went to a competing remodeling company and gave them inside information that allowed the two of them to submit a lower bid

in reality, I believe there was only one time that I worked with another contractor in submitting a bid (unsuccessful). I was a small potatoes contractor and had enough experience that when I was submitting a bid I could pretty closely calculate what the plumbing, electrical, site work, roofing, etc would cost. I almost never bothered to get a price from a sub-contractor. And I wrote pretty ironclad contracts with customers to cover those 'unseen' costs. You never know if, and how much dry rot you're discover. And sometimes you can't be sure about what you have to do to bring a remodel up to code

a 4B bid to buy something is a completely different animal and it kind of looks like the Cherngs were leveraging their willingness to invest against both RAJ and Dundon

I understand what RAJ is claiming. I just don't trust their version of events... Namely that they had any chance to purchase the Blazers after the Blazers publicly announced that they had an agreement with Dundon (mid-august).

I'm guessing that RAJ just doesn't/didn't have a good understanding of the process. So in their mind - they still THOUGHT they had a chance to win the bid into September, when in reality there was already a signed LOI for Dundon's group to purchase the Blazers.

Obviously we are all just trying to piece the story together. I'm applying my past business experience to the situation and making assumptions on what happened. Given that, I think the RAJ group was the 'backup' buyer - and had no viable way to purchase the Blazers after mid-August unless Dundon's group walked away.

[Wizenheimer]

it's been mentioned in this thread multiple times....about billionaires doing billionaire things that look like ahole things. Apparently, and no surprise, Dundon is no exception:

https://www.opb.org/article/2025/10/03/tom-dundon-blazers-subprime-loan/

[Norm2953]

https://www.blazersedge.com/trail-blazers-news/103946/portland-trail-blazers-ownership-lawsuit-raj-sports-cherngs-tom-dundon-nba-news

Thankfully there is an out of court settlement

[DusterBuster]

Was just coming to update this as well:

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

That must have been a pretty frivolous lawsuit that didn't have much of a chance of going anywhere if they full on withdrew it.

I also have to wonder if there wasn't some pressure on the RAJ group for the Fire to keep moving forward cleanly.

Also nice that this didn't drag on or anything and the Cherngs are still part of the group.

Obviously the arena thing is what it is, but as for the sale, looks like everything is still on track now for the sale to officially close.

[Wizenheimer]

That must have been a pretty frivolous lawsuit that didn't have much of a chance of going anywhere if they full on withdrew it.

they 'withdrew' after a settlement. Hard to classify as frivolous without knowing the size of the settlement. If it's several million dollars than the suit probably had enough potential to monkey-wrench a smooth and timely transition

[zzaj]

From a fan perspective this is the best outcome, I suppose. Seems like more rich people doing rich people things.

Probably both parties realized that it wasn't worth the cost and publicity to drag this on. For the RAJ group, it's very bad for their brand to interfere with the sale of the Blazers, especially as they are already trying to drum up fan interest in the Fire. For the Cherng's the more that comes out about them "switching teams" it would likely paint them in a worse and worse light, which is bad for their own brand.

So a nice fat settlement that is likely under the price of drawn out legal costs, to make it all go away and be replaced by tomorrow's news wire...

[DusterBuster]

That must have been a pretty frivolous lawsuit that didn't have much of a chance of going anywhere if they full on withdrew it.

they 'withdrew' after a settlement. Hard to classify as frivolous without knowing the size of the settlement. If it's several million dollars than the suit probably had enough potential to monkey-wrench a smooth and timely transition

That’s on me, I didn’t see the settlement part, just that the lawsuit was withdrawn.

[tester551]

That must have been a pretty frivolous lawsuit that didn't have much of a chance of going anywhere if they full on withdrew it.

they 'withdrew' after a settlement. Hard to classify as frivolous without knowing the size of the settlement. If it's several million dollars than the suit probably had enough potential to monkey-wrench a smooth and timely transition

That’s on me, I didn’t see the settlement part, just that the lawsuit was withdrawn.

I'm not seeing anything that says there was a 'settlement'. Just that a resolution has been reached.

Read on Twitter

[zzaj]

they 'withdrew' after a settlement. Hard to classify as frivolous without knowing the size of the settlement. If it's several million dollars than the suit probably had enough potential to monkey-wrench a smooth and timely transition

That’s on me, I didn’t see the settlement part, just that the lawsuit was withdrawn.

I'm not seeing anything that says there was a 'settlement'. Just that a resolution has been reached.

Read on Twitter

Yeah, very true. Dundon probably said..."look, you screwing with this...I guess you want the Fire to play at the Chiles Center?"

[DusterBuster]

Ya wait, where did you see anything about a settlement Wiz?

[Wizenheimer]

I'm assuming "resolution" means there was a settlement that involved money changing hands. Settlement/resolution are synonymous terms when lawsuits are 'resolved/settled' out of court. I think you guys are likely reading too much in the use of the word 'resolution'; a distinction without a difference

[oldfishermen]

I'm assuming "resolution" means there was a settlement that involved money changing hands. Settlement/resolution are synonymous terms when lawsuits are 'resolved/settled' out of court. I think you guys are likely reading too much in the use of the word 'resolution'; a distinction without a difference

Wrong.

A settlement ends a legal dispute with a legal enforcable contract between the parties. It may involve money changing hands, or stopping some activity.

A resolution is a much broader term. It can mean the lawsuit ended without a settlement. In this case. It is possible that both parties realized the lawsuit was causing too much PR harm to their brands. Deciding to shake hands and withdraw the lawsuit.

We may never know how it ended, or why. Assuming anything now would be pointless

[Wizenheimer]

I'm assuming "resolution" means there was a settlement that involved money changing hands. Settlement/resolution are synonymous terms when lawsuits are 'resolved/settled' out of court. I think you guys are likely reading too much in the use of the word 'resolution'; a distinction without a difference

Wrong.

A settlement ends a legal dispute with a legal enforcable contract between the parties. It may involve money changing hands, or stopping some activity.

A resolution is a much broader term. It can mean the lawsuit ended without a settlement. In this case. It is possible that both parties realized the lawsuit was causing too much PR harm to their brands. Deciding to shake hands and withdraw the lawsuit.

We may never know how it ended, or why. Assuming anything now would be pointless

fair point that 'resolution' is a broader term legally. I also agree that we probably will never know

but from what we do know I think assuming RAJ was the slimy party here and the Cherngs were innocent is likely naive. Sure looks like the Cherngs were initially part of the RAj effort and as the Dundon group was developing a stronger bid the Cherngs jumped off the RAJ ship onto the Dundon deck. I think this was a case of 3 groups of billionaires battling in the gray areas of business legality. It could be that the Cherngs made it known they were willing 'minority' investors to both groups and leveraged that willingness into the best terms