⚖️ SANCTIONS HEARING | NZ Management v. Sound Fusion | Case #24-2470 | | Show Cause Order

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:34]Good morning. We'll be on the record in case number 24-2470.

[00:00:39]This is NZ Management Group LLC at all versus Sound Fusion LLC and Adrien D.

[00:00:45]Rivas. Um Mr. Kzada. Um, could you turn on your camera, please, sir?

[00:00:50]>> I'm judge. I'm trying to. For some reason, it's not allowing me, which I don't really understand why. I use Zoom all the time and never had this issue come up at all. Can you hear me, your honor?

[00:01:02]>> Yes, sir, I can.

[00:01:03]>> All right. I'm Here we go. See if this is I keep hitting start video. It's just not letting me do it.

[00:01:11]Is going on.

[00:01:27]The other option I could have is to try a different computer.

[00:01:31]>> We'll stand by.

[00:01:32]>> Okay, I'm going to um close this out and just operate from the um an iPad. Give me just one moment, please. I apologize for this. This is unusual.

[00:02:40]I'm in on the iPad. If you'll let me in, please.

[00:02:59]Sorry about that, judge. I don't know why that happens.

[00:03:02]>> That's okay. We can see you now. All right. So, uh, this we're here on a, um, order to show cause, um, directed at attorney Ricardo Caleda individually.

[00:03:12]Why sanctions shouldn't be imposed against him for, um, failing to follow a few of our orders. Um, sir, I'm going to allow you to respond to the show cause order, but I do want to lay a bit of a background. Before I do that, let me introduce the rest of the panel. I'm joined by the Honorable Jared Smith and the Honorable Rachel Kamutus. Um, I'm um Dan Traver, and I'm the chief judge of this court. Um, by way of background, on November 14th of last year, you filed a notice of appeal in this case of a trial court order involving a um final judgment on a promisory note. Uh you filed the notice of appeal on behalf of four appellants uh NZ management group Inc. uh Luis Javier Lazardi uh Nisha Pñena Pantoas and Oscar Bodilio Figareroa. Uh the judgment was imposed against those four defendants uh and appellants jointly.

[00:04:04]On May 8th of la of I'm sorry, that was November 14th of 24. in May on May 8th of 25 um after we issued some orders directed to you as to why trying to figure out why the record in the initial brief hadn't been filed you filed a suggestion of bankruptcy on behalf of the three individual appellants. You identified their pending bankruptcy case numbers um in the middle district of Florida bankruptcy division in that filing. Um 6 days later we noted the automatic stay um and directed the parties to provide a bankruptcy status within 120 days. Uh that 120 days came and went without a status being filed.

[00:04:44]And on September 17th of last year, we ordered the debtor uh to file a status report within 10 days. That date came and went. On October 7th, having again received no status, we ordered you individually to file a status report on the bankruptcy proceedings within 10 days, failing which we warned you that you risked sanctions. On December 5th, again, having received no status, we again ordered you to show cause. We ordered you to show cause why sanctions should not be imposed against you individually for ignoring our May, September, and October orders. We directed you to respond to our order to show cause in writing within 5 days.

[00:05:20]Those five days came and went. We received no written response and on January 5th we uh we set this matter for hearing. Um a few questions before I allow you to um say whatever it is that you want to say.

[00:05:33]Um council, um how long have you been admitted to practice law in the state of Florida?

[00:05:39]>> Since 2002, your honor, >> do you have a disciplinary history?

[00:05:45]>> Not that I'm a I don't believe so. I think I got censured one time maybe 10 years ago, but other than that, nothing.

[00:05:52]>> What was that for?

[00:05:54]>> That was for an advertising um matter.

[00:06:00]>> Okay. Um and do you represent these particular individual appellants in their bankruptcy proceedings?

[00:06:08]>> I did not, your honor.

[00:06:10]>> Who does?

[00:06:11]>> Uh James Harper.

[00:06:14]What is the status of these bankruptcy proceedings?

[00:06:17]>> They are discharged, your honor. I I filed earlier this morning um a status report um indicating that the three bankruptcies were discharged, two of them on August 6th and the third one on August 12th of this year, your honor.

[00:06:33]What efforts, if any, between yesterday and when those bankruptcy matters were discharged did you make um to speak to bankruptcy council to apprise yourself of what the status of those bankruptcies were?

[00:06:46]>> I spoke to uh James Harper yesterday and asked him for copies of the discharges and he sent them to me yesterday.

[00:06:53]>> Is that the first time when was the last time before yesterday that you spoke to uh attorney Barker?

[00:06:59]>> Um Harper. Um and it would have been I was seeking status from him on the on the bankruptcies.

[00:07:08]It it would have been before August um sometime in summer. Um I was asking where where he was in the process and um he advised that he was having an issue with one of the three but obviously he resolved it.

[00:07:22]what um what steps, if any, other than the status uh report that you filed this morning and and for what it's worth, hasn't hit our docket yet, at least not that I've seen. Um to move these appeals forward?

[00:07:36]>> None. Your honor, I I I was waiting to to learn that the bankruptcies were discharged. Um, and honestly, your honor, I I I just missed the orders that were emailed to me that you mentioned.

[00:07:51]And to be frank, your honor, I missed the order for today's hearing as well. I I got a call yesterday from your clerk, Stacy, and you know, I I called her back immediately and um she thanked her for calling her back and I said, "I should be thanking you for calling me cuz I missed it. I wouldn't I wouldn't have been at this hearing today, your honor."

[00:08:13]That those orders are going to the correct email address, but I closed my practice um some time ago. Um I'm an in-house counsel now to a corporation.

[00:08:24]Um, and so this is an old relic case from 2017. I closed that practice in like 2018. Um, and this this matter came with basically one of the last two or three cases that I had to try to finish out. Um, and so I don't regularly check that email address. And I'm just glad Stacy called because I I I wouldn't have made this hearing and I would have been in real trouble. And I I'm not making excuses. I'm just letting the court know how this could have happened. There is no excuse for it whatsoever. Um, and I take full responsibility for it. Um, as I mentioned in the status report, the intention of the of the bankruptcies was to discharge the debt associated with the judgment. That has now occurred and the intention of the of the appellants is to dismiss this appallet action um as quickly as possible. I spoke to uh one of the three appellants yesterday. um he confirmed he's he's in agreement to do that. Um I reached out to a second one um and he has not returned um my call yet, but I I I've spoken to all three of them about the intent here on the bankruptcies and the and the appeal. And the intention from the beginning um was that if the bankruptcies went through or discharged, the appeal would be dismissed as well. I will add one more thing, your honor, as this was an old case of mine. Um, I was really diligent at the time when the judgment was entered and in that 30-day period to um, inquire from the clients what their intentions were, whether when the appeal or not, um, they told me no, no, no, no, no. Up until the last day when they changed their minds and said, "We want to file an appeal." And I I was flabbergasted and had this really scurry and and and and filed this thing as quickly as I could.

[00:10:17]they they did not pay me for it. They didn't pay my cost that I forwarded for for everything that I did. Um and I told them I was gonna have to withdraw. Um and that's when they decided to file the bankers with M Mr. Harper. Um so, you know, this has been a disaster for me personally, your honor, at this point.

[00:10:34]I'm upside down on every which way possible. And now to um receive this order to show cause is humiliating. Um I've never had an order to show cause against me before. Um, I apologize for wasting the court's time. I've never willfully disobeyed or ignored a court order before and it sure looks like I did here and I I didn't, your honor. And and the fact that I didn't know of the hearing today and I and I got that call.

[00:11:02]I just I'm just glad you called. So there's no excuse for it. Um, but that is exactly what happened and um I will accept whatever punishment the court gives me.

[00:11:13]So, I appreciate greatly the the cander and the acceptance of the responsibility. It it p I can't speak for the rest of the panel, but it helps me. Um, you know, and I know uh you're referring to the name that perhaps that you were given, but the person who called you is Stacy Pectal, who is our clerk of court who oversees our clerk's office. Um, you've got three judges who've convened uh a sanctions hearing because multiple orders uh were not responded to. um that were received um and um a decent amount of time and resources has been um expended in getting ready for this. Um so acceptance of responsibility aside, have you given any thought as to what an appropriate sanction in this case might be?

[00:12:01]>> I haven't, your honor. I that's just I I realized this yesterday um close to 5:00 and I I hadn't I did not think about what a sanction sanction would be. Your honor, I apologize.

[00:12:15]>> It's okay. Uh Judge Smith, do you have any questions for attorney?

[00:12:22]>> And I think you're muted, sir.

[00:12:29]>> Um yeah, Mr. calls out. I I we do appreciate you taking responsibility. Uh certainly. Um I guess a couple questions that I have. Uh when when you got the initial order from our court, I assume did you get the initial order from our court? The one that stated that we needed a status update within 120 days.

[00:12:48]I I I went back and looked, your honor, and um I think I received three separate orders requiring me to file something within 10 days, two of them, and then third one within 5 days. So, I they they they hit my account. They they hit the the email address. There's no doubt about it.

[00:13:06]>> Okay. Didn't go to junk. They were in the inbox.

[00:13:09]>> Did you when going back to that May 2025 order, the one where we said, "Tell us what's going on in the next 120 days."

[00:13:17]Um, when is the first time you saw that particular email?

[00:13:22]>> Yesterday. When when when I tal right when I talked to Stacy um I began doing keyword searches and that's when I my heart sunk.

[00:13:33]>> Okay. And the um I assume when you initially filed the appeal back in uh you know November time frame 2024 at that point you were watching your emails to ensure that it was properly filed.

[00:13:49]>> For sure. Yeah. Yeah. I Yeah, for sure.

[00:13:51]No, I there was there was there were defin I checked it to make sure it got filed. I called the clerk's office. I for sure did all those things to make sure that it was it was timely filed.

[00:14:03]>> And and uh you mentioned and I just want some clarification on this. You mentioned that the um you had shut down you were shutting down or shut down your practice in the 2017 to 2018 time frame.

[00:14:15]Is that correct?

[00:14:16]>> In 2018 in 20 up until 2018 I had a a robust practice here in Central Florida.

[00:14:23]I took an in-house council job summer of 18 in Colorado um and and basically I say closed it down. The the the LLC is still active but the practice itself um was shut down as I took this in-house council job.

[00:14:38]>> Okay. And as of 2024 the end of 2024 how many cases did you have left at that point?

[00:14:50]off memory um less than three.

[00:14:56]>> Okay.

[00:14:58]>> One of those were >> any of those cases at an appellet status?

[00:15:02]>> None. None whatsoever. And that's kind of what threw me off that the um the email um resection is different for the appellet court than it is for the courts that I the other cases were in. And so I just I I wasn't picking up on I wasn't picking up that these were coming from from from a court. And that's my mistake. I've never I think I've only filed one appeal in in my career and that was probably 10 15 years ago. This is only a second one.

[00:15:37]I'm not an appellent attorney and again I only filed this one because I was given no choice at the last minute by the clients. It was a defensive it was a defensive filing to protect my license.

[00:15:52]Um all right, thank you. I don't have any other questions.

[00:15:56]>> Judge Kamus, do you have any questions?

[00:16:02]So just to again to clarify, you filed the notice of appeal in November 2024 with one email and that is that right?

[00:16:11]>> It's the that I use the same email um >> from your prior practice.

[00:16:17]>> Correct. It's the same email from the prior practice and I still have that email open and operational. It's just not something that I regularly check.

[00:16:26]>> Okay. And since 2024, November 2024, did you check that email account?

[00:16:35]>> I have checked that email account on a number of occasions since that time frame. Yes, I have >> since November. But it >> and in fact, I received I know that I've received emails regarding this case because I had to file additional documents um after after the appeal was filed.

[00:16:53]That's when I was cognizant this was happening and was looking to see what I had to do to to move the appeal forward and the bankruptcies were filed, automatic state was issued and it just went on the back burner. So, I wasn't actively looking like I should have like I should have.

[00:17:12]>> Okay. Because you did get the and receive the request to um provide a status update within 120 days. You did receive that. I received all of the everything that you everything that was um emailed to me um regarding the case is in my inbox all of them.

[00:17:36]>> But I think the I think just for I so I can understand and make sure I understand your answer for the May 14th 2020 25 request for the status update within 120 days. When did you first see that? Was that yesterday or around?

[00:17:52]>> Yep. when I when I went back and found all of them. I just went back one December and then October November then October and then May and I'm like >> okay I don't have any other questions.

[00:18:06]Thank you, Judge.

[00:18:08]>> Um is there anything else that you want to say council before we recess?

[00:18:11]>> I think I've said it all, your honor. I again like I I would never willfully violate or disregard an order. I know it looks like I did that here. I didn't. Um there's been no no prejudice to the clients which is the most important thing. Um and I apologize to the court for wasting your time. Whatever you need me to do, you know, I I'll be happy to do it. I do some proono work for people.

[00:18:36]Whatever you need me to do, I financial I I'll do it. I just I I'm in the wrong and I accept responsibility for it.

[00:18:45]>> All right. Thank you, council. Um we'll take the matter on advisement and uh we'll issue an order. Um, and we're in recess.

[00:18:51]>> Thank you,