Judgment Day

The lien stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Toast of New York, an event company contracted to produce the ill-fated grand opening of the nightclub more than two years ago. Readers might recall that the club was forced to postpone its opening several times for a litany of reasons. Then-club director Dade Sokoloff once called it “the worst week of his professional life” in a Miami New Times article.

Regardless, Toast, for its part, was promised $300,000 in two payments for its services.

Apparently, having not enough funds in the Nocturnal account, club owner Kofman, who is also the CEO of a telecommunications company called Globcom, issued a check for $150,000 from the Globcom account. Kofman himself once valued the telecom business at more than $50 million. So, it was much to the surprise of the owners of Toast of New York that the check bounced owing to insufficient funds.

Following that incident, on May 26, 2005, Nocturnal tendered a second check to Toast in the amount of $25,000. That check, signed by Kofman, also bounced. This time the reason cited was an irregular signature. Toast then filed and won a suit against Kofman, Nocturnal and Globcom. After the court assessed lawyer fees and “treble damages” (read: three times the money) in the amount to be recovered, Kofman was ordered to pay a grand total of $1,060,006.80, plus interest, according to a Miami-Dade County Circuit Court final judgment dated Nov. 7, 2006.

Unable to get the money from Kofman, Toast apparently initiated the nightclub seizure in an attempt to collect on the judgment. And thus the police prepped their trailers to begin taking away audio and visual equipment worth millions. When the cops arrived a couple of weeks ago to close the place down, a temporary fix was achieved. Kofman and Nocturnal’s lawyers were able to get a last-minute stay of execution by handing over the establishment’s liquor license as collateral while the lawyers attempted to reach some sort of settlement. The club reopened just a few hours later.

That, however, was just the beginning, as around 4 a.m. Saturday, June 16, the police came calling again. This time they were checking to see if Nocturnal was serving liquor without said license. Accounts from those on the scene say they were, and that Kofman was placed in handcuffs and possibly arrested (confirmation was still pending at press time). The club was subsequently closed and remains so.

The untimely arrival of the police, however, was seen by a lot of the club’s patrons as just another in a long line of incidents between Nocturnal and rival club, Space. Many people accused Space of tipping off the cops to Nocturnal’s alleged malfeasance.

“I’m not going to say who I think is behind calling the cops, but you can look at the information and figure out just who on this block stands to benefit from something like that. I don’t think it’s too difficult to see who that person is,” said one Nocturnal DJ, alluding to Louis Puig, owner of Space.

“Miami is blowing up, huh? I’m here on vacation in Barcelona trying to mind my own business. I’m out of it. All I know is whatever I read when I can get Internet reception,” said Puig.

It’s unclear how police knew the club was serving alcohol, but Aaron Resnick, an attorney representing Toast of New York, had this to say:

“They [Nocturnal] are obviously facing the repercussions of the execution of the judgment lien by my clients. I can tell you Nocturnal’s lawyers and I are in the process of trying to negotiate … a settlement.… They can open, they just can’t serve liquor.”

Repeated phone calls and e-mails to both Nocturnal and Kofman went unanswered.

Spotted: Super-Size Edition

*Janet Jackson quietly slipped in through the back door of the VIP nightspot, Privé, this past Saturday night alongside an entourage of a few male and female friends. Even though the only seemingly sane person to come out of the Jackson family was partying without her man, Jermaine Dupree, the group made its way to the hip-hop room, where Janet and Co. partied into the wee hours of the night. Jackson appears to be keeping off those pounds, as sources report she was showing off her sexy assets in a skin-tight, head-to-toe white ensemble. Michael’s sister reportedly spent the night drinking red wine and jamming out to a Jackson 5 shout-out by the DJ. Scott Storch and Brandon Davis were also cozying up to a big-breasted blonde at the same party, which was thrown by Empire Events.

*If you guessed Ashlee Simpson would make an appearance alongside her boy toy bassist Pete Wentz when the Fallout Boy threw down a DJ set with Travis Barker, good news, you were right. Simpson, who was sporting the blond look, was hovering all over her man pretty much the whole night. Also in attendance at the Bacardi B-Live event was the Miami Heat’s Eddie Jones, quietly getting his groove on.

*T-Pain, Lloyd and Lil Scrappy representing on Father’s Day at the Dub Custom Auto Show and Concert at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

*Danny DeVito receiving the key to the city of Miami Beach at the grand opening of his South Beach restaurant, DeVito’s, last Wednesday.

* Pitbull hanging at the Ocean Drive Power Issue party last Tuesday at Table 8.

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