West Palm Beach FL – The two creditors who have fought since August over $4.4 million from the sale of Adam Hendry’s Cheyenne River Ranch have made a deal.
If the judge signs off, most of the money would go to FC Sioux Falls, the creditor that sued to stop it from going to Alejandro Arguelles. Arguelles would be paid a different way: $2.65 million in cash from FC Sioux Falls, and a judgment against Hendry that stays whole.
On Nov. 2, Daniel Stermer, the court-appointed plan administrator in charge of selling properties under Hendry’s confirmed Chapter 11 plan, asked Judge Mindy A. Mora to lift the preliminary injunction that has frozen the money since September and to approve the payouts.
A hearing is set for Nov. 13 at 11 a.m. by video conference, with ten minutes set aside and no testimony expected.
The short version
Money from the ranch sale is sitting in a lawyer’s trust account, and two creditors want it: Arguelles, whom Hendry’s plan says gets paid first, and FC Sioux Falls, which says it was promised the money first.
They’ve agreed that FC Sioux Falls takes the cash, then pays Arguelles $2.65 million for a share of what Hendry owes him. A judge still has to approve the release.
Even then, Hendry still owes Arguelles about $11.8 million, and FC Sioux Falls still has claims pending against Hendry, the ranch company and a trust. Neither of those fights is over.
Where the money would go
Stermer is holding $4,384,338.70 in his lawyers’ trust account, what remains of the proceeds from the July 29 sale of the ranch, more than 16,000 acres in Pennington County, to Heim Ranch, LLC for $23 million.
The sale paid off BankWest in full. His motion asks the court to distribute what’s left this way:
- FC Sioux Falls Pref, LP: $4,292,405.93
- Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP (successor to Morris, Manning & Martin): $56,269.50
- Madison SPECS, LLC: $35,500.00
- Muellenberg Electric, Inc.: $163.27
The last three, which total $91,932.77, are Cheyenne River Ranch payables Stermer says he investigated and verified.
Nothing goes to Alejandro Arguelles or his company, Gatoralex Consulting, LLC, directly. Hendry’s confirmed plan routes sale proceeds, after BankWest, to Arguelles and Gatoralex as Class 2 secured creditors.
FC Sioux Falls sued on Aug. 20, claiming rights to the money under a 2025 payment agreement and saying it is owed more than $5 million by Cheyenne River Ranch. The judge granted its request for a preliminary injunction Sept. 25 and kept the funds in place. Arguelles and Gatoralex opposed it.
What Arguelles gets instead
The motion attaches a settlement agreement between FC Sioux Falls, Arguelles and Gatoralex. According to the document, all three signed it Oct. 27.
Under it, FC Sioux Falls gets the money and then pays Arguelles and Gatoralex $2.65 million within one business day. In exchange, they sell FC Sioux Falls a $2.65 million share of the roughly $11.77 million judgment Arguelles holds against Hendry. The agreement lists the judgment’s balance at $11,773,735 as of Oct. 18.
The judgment is divided into three pieces, and anything collected on it is paid in this order:
- Arguelles and Gatoralex: the first $8,123,735
- FC Sioux Falls: its $2.65 million
- Arguelles and Gatoralex: the last $1 million, plus their enforcement costs
Each piece also accrues interest. Arguelles keeps sole control of collecting the judgment. FC Sioux Falls can’t enforce it, appear in Hendry’s case on it, or file notice of the transfer unless the law requires.
By the Sentinel’s arithmetic from the agreement’s figures, FC Sioux Falls would come out about $1.64 million ahead in cash ($4.29 million received, $2.65 million paid out), while also holding a $2.65 million piece of a judgment whose collection it bears the risk of.
The agreement says it takes the interest “without recourse” and “subject to all defenses, offsets, and plan treatment.”
Two other money terms: if the $485,000 that was held back from the sale over a Popular AG Finance lien is released, it goes to FC Sioux Falls. So does whatever’s left of a $75,000 reserve for Stermer’s court-approved fees.
What the deal doesn’t change
The agreement says the payments to FC Sioux Falls are not a payment on the Arguelles judgment and don’t reduce it. The judgment against Hendry stays at the same balance.
FC Sioux Falls also isn’t giving up its case against Hendry. After the order becomes final, it would dismiss Counts 1 through 3 of its adversary proceeding with prejudice.
Those counts sought to revoke the confirmation order, a declaratory judgment and an injunction. The breach-of-contract and nondischargeability claims, Counts 4 and 5, remain against Hendry, Cheyenne River Ranch and the Shalom on the Range Trust. The agreement says none of them is released. The court docket doesn’t say whether any money FC Sioux Falls receives would be credited against those claims.
Hendry, Cheyenne River Ranch and the Shalom on the Range Trust jointly moved Oct. 7 to dismiss part of FC Sioux Falls’ complaint.
They argue that the Bankruptcy Code doesn’t allow the partial revocation of a confirmation order that Count 1 seeks, and that Count 2 can’t establish that the court lacked jurisdiction, or that FC Sioux Falls has payment priority, merely because the ranch isn’t a debtor.
Cheyenne and the trust, but not Hendry, also argue that Count 4 fails because their 2025 promise to pay was for a debt incurred in 2022 and they received nothing new in exchange.
By an Oct. 30 order, FC Sioux Falls has until Nov. 27 to respond to that motion or to amend its complaint. If the settlement takes effect, dismissing Counts 1 through 3 would appear to leave only the Count 4 argument still to be decided.
That is the Sentinel’s read of the two documents, not something either side has said.
What Stermer says about the rest of the claims
Hendry and Cheyenne River Ranch had asked that about $2.5 million in payables be paid from the sale proceeds ahead of Arguelles. Stermer’s motion says he confirmed only the $91,932.77.
The largest unverified item is $1,351,895.55 for a loan payment to Community Credit Union of Florida on behalf of an affiliate, L’Chaim Farm, LLC.
Stermer says $1,351,894.65 from a January 2024 loan to L’Chaim Farm went to BankWest to pay down Cheyenne River Ranch’s debt, but he hasn’t seen “any documentation other than intercompany bookkeeping entries” showing the credit union is a legitimate creditor of the ranch or has a claim to the sale proceeds.
He doesn’t believe the remaining items, which include $347,175 in payables, $485,458 in intercompany liabilities and $298,300 in payroll liabilities owed to an affiliated management company, are payable from the proceeds.
The motion doesn’t say how Hendry or Cheyenne River Ranch responded to that finding, and the docket as of Tuesday shows no response from either to the new motion.
The clock
The agreement is contingent on Judge Mora approving the distribution.
If an order hasn’t been entered by Nov. 15, a Sunday, either FC Sioux Falls or Arguelles and Gatoralex may terminate it by written notice, putting everyone back where they started, injunction included.
In the adversary case, Arguelles and Gatoralex have until Nov. 6 to respond to FC Sioux Falls’ complaint.
The court has extended that deadline repeatedly, and the extension requests filed Oct. 2 and Oct. 23 both cited settlement talks.
The agreement calls for the parties to ask the court to “abate” the case as to Arguelles, Gatoralex and Stermer, meaning pause it without ending it, while the distribution order is sought. The pause would not cover Hendry, Cheyenne or the trust. The agreement says nothing in it limits FC Sioux Falls’ pursuit of Counts 4 and 5 against them. The court has also set a scheduling conference for Dec. 9 at 10 a.m. by video.
Sourcing
This report is based on:
- PACER docket, In re Adam Hendry, Case No. 25-14711-MAM, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Florida (docket report retrieved Nov. 3, 2026):
- Doc. 626 — Plan Administrator’s Expedited Supplemental Motion to Lift Injunction and Authorize Certain Distributions, with Exhibit 1 (Settlement Agreement) (filed 11/2/26)
- Doc. 627 — Notice of Hearing, Nov. 13, 2026, 11:00 a.m. (filed 11/2/26)
- Doc. 628 — Certificate of Service (filed 11/3/26)
- Doc. 624 — Order on Motion to Approve Certain Distributions (entered 9/25/26)
- Doc. 444 — Debtor’s Fourth Amended Plan of Reorganization, §§ 5.01(b), 5.02 (filed 3/13/26)
- Doc. 620 — Arguelles and Gatoralex’s response to FC Sioux Falls’ amended objection (filed 9/16/26)
- PACER docket, FC Sioux Falls Pref, LP v. Hendry, et al., Adv. Proc. No. 26-01285-MAM (docket report retrieved Nov. 3, 2026):
- Doc. 28 — Order Granting Motion for Preliminary Injunction (9/25/26)
- Doc. 37 — Defendants Hendry, Cheyenne River Ranch, LLC and Shalom on the Range Trust’s Joint Motion to Dismiss Complaint in Part (filed 10/7/26)
- Docs. 34 and 44 — Arguelles and Gatoralex’s motions for extension of time to respond to the complaint (filed 10/2/26 and 10/23/26)
- Doc. 45 — Order granting extension through Nov. 6, 2026 (entered 10/26/26)
- Doc. 50 — Order extending FC Sioux Falls’ deadline to respond to the joint motion to dismiss, or to amend its complaint, through Nov. 27, 2026 (entered 10/30/26)
- Doc. 53 — Order Setting Scheduling Conference, Dec. 9, 2026, 10:00 a.m. (entered 11/2/26)
- Allegations about FC Sioux Falls’ rights under the 2025 agreements and the amounts it claims come from its filings and the settlement’s recitals. Arguelles and Gatoralex expressly do not admit them in the agreement.
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