A Denver, Colorado-based investment firm that has a $4.86 million judgment against Retreat Behavioral Health’s corporate owners in Pennsylvania wants a Florida judge to appoint a receiver to oversee its operations there.

Attorneys for Lapis Advisers said in a Florida court filing Monday that, all told, various Retreat entities owe it about $30 million. And Retreat entities failed to pay more than $803,000 in property taxes in 2022 and 2023 in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Lapis’ request in Florida mirrors recent action in Lancaster County Court, where Judge Jeffrey Conrad on June 27 appointed a receiver following the recent deaths by suicide of the company’s two top executives and the abrupt shuttering of Retreat’s addiction and mental health treatment centers in three states.

“Retreat is in a state of chaos without any active management, and there is an immediate risk of waste and harm to what remains of the business,” Lapis attorneys wrote in their filing.

And “given the suspicious facts surrounding the immediate closure of (Retreat’s Florida facility) and its failure to pay wages to the employees, an independent receiver is necessary to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation of Retreat’s financial condition and whether there has been any malfeasance or criminality,” the filing said.

A case management hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday in Palm Beach County court.

Lapis’ attorneys wrote that a receiver would provide stability, conduct an investigation into the cause of the Retreat’s money problems and “hopefully … salvage some aspects of (the Retreat’s) business operations to provide a recovery to the many creditors of the Retreat entities, including hundreds of employees that were not paid by (the Retreat) for their last weeks of work.”

Lapis wants the same receiver who was appointed in Pennsylvania to be appointed in Florida, James W. Young. 

Young, of California, has significant experience in restructuring health care businesses in California and Florida, including treatment centers, according to court filings in support of his appointment in Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania and Florida operations were owned by separate companies headed by Retreat CEO Peter Schorr and business partner David Silberstein.

Conrad’s order only applies to the Retreat’s Pennsylvania locations. Part of his order directed Fulton Bank — where Retreat had an account — to pay two unpaid insurance premiums for employees totaling $771,240.

Retreat also has operations in Connecticut. As in Pennsylvania and Florida, Schorr and Silberstein own the majority of the Connecticut operations, though a third party owns a fractional share. Court records in that state show a mortgage default case filed by Fulton Bank against the partners was withdrawn last August.