Robin Lehner files bankruptcy in connection to the purchase of an exotic snake farm
Robin Lehner, Las Vegas Golden Knights goaltender, and Donya Lehner are his wife filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy According to SinBin Vegas: Nevada in the New Year
According to the public filing, Lehner estimated his assets to be between $1-10million and his liability to creditors to be between $10-50million.
What’s raising eyebrows is one of the main causes for Lehner’s financial trouble: his ownership of RL Exotics LLC, a rare and exotic snake and reptile farm in Missouri.
In 2017, Lehner purchased a collection snakes from Ben Renick, a world-renowned reptile breeder. He set up a payment plan that included quarterly instalments of $200,000.
According to Missouri-based news station KMIZ, a lawsuit was filed in 2018 after Renick’s wife murdered him and Lehner stopped issuing payments for the snakes. Lehner counter-sued, claiming lower value due to maintenance costs and uncontrolled reproduction amongst the snakes.
As the legal battle continued, the company later claimed that Lehner “stole a collection of anacondas [from] Renick Reptiles’ place of business (as well as taking the collection of ball pythons that Lehner refused to pay for).” The suit was settled in November 2019 and RL Exotics LLC has been operating ever since.
The Golden Knights along with Black Knight Sports & Entertainment, the National Hockey League, Newport Sports Management, and Sure Sports Lending have all been officially listed as parties interested in the Lehners’ bankruptcy.
Sure Sports Lending is an agency that specializes “in low-interest, unsecured loans and contract advances to Professional Athletes in the NFL, MLB, NBA, WNBA, NHL, and MLS based on their player contracts.” They are no strangers to controversy, having also been involved in Evander Kane’s bankruptcy filing in 2021.
Lehner is expected to miss the remainder of the 2022-23 season After undergoing hip surgery in the offseason. The contract has two years left for the 31-year-old, with a maximum of $5 million per year.
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