The District has learned that Joseph Prevratil and Howard Bell, former kingpins of the Queen Mary who got rich while sinking Long Beach’s floating icon into bankruptcy, are expected to relinquish their million-dollar condo in Hawaii to settle a lawsuit filed against them in February by the Queen Mary’s bankruptcy trustee Howard Ehrenberg and the City of Long Beach. The proposed settlement will be considered during a June 10 hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles.

The idea, according to court documents filed on May 16, is to sell the condo for about $1 million and use the profit-between $530,000 and $620,000 after paying off the loan and various sales costs-to offset approximately $1.6 million that Prevratil and Bell allegedly transferred out of the Queen’s Seaport Development, Inc., just before filing for bankruptcy.

Prevratil had denied that the transfer of $1.5 million in cash was irregular; he maintained it was payback for loans he had made to QSDI. He asserted that the $100,000 in QSDI money he used to make a down payment on the Hawaiian condo was part of a bonus program.

Although the City of Long Beach bankrolled the suit filed by Ehrenberg on Feb. 7, it doesn’t look like it will receive any of the benefits if this settlement is approved-because Erhrenberg has pulled out of his agreement with the city.

Tags: Add new tag, City of Long Beach, Howard Ehrenberg, Joe Prevratil, QSDI, Queen Mary, U.S. Bankruptcy Court