ClassicStar Files Claims Against Former Executives

Embattled breeding operation ClassicStar and its parent company filed a series of legal documents June 21, actions that both level allegations of blame against two of their former executives and make a request to consolidate a cross-country myriad of federal lawsuits into a Kentucky federal court.

The one-time marketer of high-profile mare lease programs to dozens of mostly new players to the Thoroughbred industry, ClassicStar has filed complaints against former father-son executives S. David Plummer and Spencer Plummer, as well as Utah finance company National Equine Lending Co., which is alleged to be run by a relative of the Plummers.

ClassicStar and its parent company, GeoStar, as well as the Plummers and NELC, are included among a variety of co-defendants in civil actions launched by investors who claim they lost large sums of money in the mare lease programs, including at least six lawsuits filed at the federal court level in five different states.

Separately, ClassicStar, which is headed by managing partner and GeoStar executive Tony Ferguson, petitioned the federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to transfer the various federal lawsuits – which include complaints filed in California, Florida, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Utah – into Kentucky’s U.S. District Court Eastern Division in Lexington.

Established in the late 1960s, the judicial panel, which is comprised of appointed judges from various federal districts across the U.S., has the ability to transfer related lawsuits with similar characteristics to a single jurisdiction.

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