The Truth About Evander Kane's Bankruptcy Exposed in Court This Week

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Skyler Walker
December 22, 2022 (11:02)

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In 2017, when Evander Kane was with the Sharks he owed a ''bookie'' $140,000, that bookie went by a name of ''Vinny'' (fake name), Kane also owed $100,000 to a casino. In case you aren't aware, a bookie is someone who places gambling bets for someone who is unauthorized too, or not in the legal state to gamble.

That was just a fraction of the ''tens of millions of dollars'' Kane accumulated over his career. To make the payments on those loans, he borrowed from friends and also lenders.

This court case is still going on, hence where all this info is coming from- it was revealed just last week. His top creditor, Centennial Bank, wants to block the bankruptcy to prevent Kane to walk away from his debts, they claim Kane owes more than $8 million dollars.

A centennial owner called it the biggest high-profile athlete bankruptcy cases in years, ''With over $50 million of carer earnings and tens of millions in borrowing, where did it all go? I'm just trying to figure out what exactly you did with your funds?'', Said a Centennial lawyer, Kane's side had no response.

Kane filed his petition nearly two years ago and listed his assets of $10.2 million and debts of $26.8 million, much of it was recently borrowed bank debt. But between 2014 and 2018 Kane also borrowed almost $30 million in 16 transactions.

The lender states that since 2014 Kane has entered 24 separate lending agreements.

«It was a cycle of just taking out new loans to pay off existing loans,» Kane said, in the July 6 deposition, according to the partial transcript included as an exhibit to Centennial's motion. And referring to the financial firm he retained to arrange the debt, Kane added, «Sure Sports were the ones that were seeking these loans out for me, they were the ones that sought out the loan with you and Centennial Bank, and it was just a vicious cycle of loan after loan that they were able to get me into.»

A company by the name of Sure Sports which specializes in loans to athletes is being sued by the US bankruptcy trustee for it's role in Kane's bankruptcy.

Per The Athletic;

One of the questions Centennial repeatedly put to Kane in that July 6 interview is while he explained that many of his current debts were incurred to replace high-interest loans, what were these earlier so-called «hard money» loans used for? He often replied he did not know or that they were to take out older loans, according to the deposition transcript.

Kane also borrowed $2 million from friends and family, where he would then testitify those debts were to help him pay off his gamblining debts, morgtages and loans from others. But the court stated he purchased a $9,000 Pokemon card but he testified.

Kane spent $10 million on real estate, but he listed expenses of nearly $100,000 a month on his January 2021 bankruptcy petition. He is also listed at $1.5 million in gambling losses.

Centennial alleged that figure does not hold up. «When reviewing the limited bank statements produced by Kane where supposedly Kane withdrew cash for gambling, the records do not support $1,500,000 in gambling losses,» the bank wrote. «This is because, as admitted by Kane, he has no records that he could look to in order to verify any losses.

Whether the bank believes there are more or less than $1.5 million in gambling losses is not stated, but the motion and deposition focus in part on the betting issue.

Ghekas asked Kane about the use of four 2017 loans from Thrivest Specialty, which lent the hockey player cumulatively a total of $11 million, according to the lawyer's declaration. After Kane had said he couldn't recall what the loans were for, Ghekas followed, «It's identified that $140,000 was to pay off to Vinny. Do you see that?»

«Yes,» Kane replied.

«And who is Vinny?»

«He's a bookie, but that's not like his real name, it's just a name that was used It was a name I was given to use to identify him.»

«So would you have any records to support whatever was owed to Vinny?»

Kane replied he did not.

Kane's ex wife filed that he would bet on NHL games, Kane declined that and the NHL held an investigation which cleared him from those accusations. He bet at casinos, on basketball, football and baseball, but no hockey was cited.

Kane has admitted in court proceedings to having a gambling problem, and his side views Centennial's motion as a red herring designed to embarrass him. Centennial argued because Kane does not have records to back up his gambling losses or gains, he runs afoul of the bankruptcy code's requirement that a debtor has substantive records as part of the Chapter 7 process.

Source: The Athletic