‘It’s all gone,’ Asian market owner says
Court order could help her collect damages
A once-thriving Milwaukee Asian market was left in dire shape by a company that operated it for less than three years before the former owner recently took back control.
Now, Phongsavan Asian Market owner Pai Yang has won a court order that could help her eventually collect what she says are hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.
5xen Inc. operated the market, 6300 N. 76th St., from April 2020 until Jan. 7. That’s when control of the property was turned back over to Yang, who launched Phongsavan in 2009 and completed a major expansion in 2016.
Pai Yang sold the business to 5xen nearly three years ago through a land contract. She remained liable for the property’s mortgage debt even though 5xen agreed to take over making payments to the bank.
When 5xen stopped making mortgage payments, Chicago-based Byline Bank in 2022 filed a foreclosure suit and obtained a judgment. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Thomas McAdams in January ordered 5xen to turn the property over to Yang after 5xen failed to make a $3.6 million payment to her.
Yang has since sued 5xen, saying it ruined the property and committed theft by removing commercial kitchen equipment, chairs, tables, carts, shelves, price guns, garbage bins − and even toilets and other restroom fixtures. The suit also says 5xen owes $11,920 in January rent collected from the market’s vendors.
On Thursday, McAdams issued an injunction barring 5xen from selling or mortgaging a neighboring property it owns at 6270 N. 76th St.
Yang’s attorney, Jason Baltz, said that building − with an assessed value of $485,000 − could eventually be used to pay down damages Yang hopes to collect from 5xen through her lawsuit.
McAdams’ decision came after a hearing which featured tearful testimony from Yang − an account the judge called credible and compelling.
5xen’s operator, Kay Yang (no relation to Pai Yang) wasn’t in court. Nor was there an attorney present for 5xen. Kay Yang didn’t respond to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s request for comment on the injunction.
Pai Yang testified the market had dozens of vendors and supported around 100 jobs before it was sold to 5xen. She said its newer, larger building has since been damaged so badly that space cannot be leased to vendors. That leaves Yang wondering how she will pay off the mortgage debt to Byline Bank.
“It’s all gone. I go there and cry every day,” Yang said.
5xen’s $20 million expansion plan for the market never happened amid legal trouble tied to Kay Yang’s activities as an investment advisor.
She acted as an unregistered investment adviser through two firms, AK Equity Group LLC and Xapphire LLC, the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions ruled in July 2020
The department ordered Yang to pay restitution of nearly $17 million within five years to investors. She also was ordered to repay $4.2 million in commissions and pay a $50,000 civil penalty.
In February 2022, a search warrant affidavit filed in U.S. District Court said Yang was the subject of a criminal investigation for alleged money laundering and wire fraud.
Also, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in April filed civil fraud charges naming Yang and Xapphire LLC for allegedly raising $16.5 million by making false and misleading statements to approximately 70 investors, and for misappropriating more than $4 million of their funds.
A default judgment against Yang is pending in that SEC case.
“Ms. Kay Yang has engaged in fraud that has devastated many members of this community, particularly the Hmong community,” Baltz said in court.