By Alexander Gladstone

A Southern California businessman has emerged in a series of bankruptcy cases as a trustee and representative of creditors while operating a side business named Goldman Sachs Capital LLC that has no connection to the famed Wall Street bank.

Arian Eghbali, 40 years old, has been involved in dozens of recent chapter 11 cases, including Forever 21, Hooters and Virgin Orbit, representing trade creditors through his firm Olympus Guardians. Eghbali has also won an assignment as the liquidating trustee of Plenty Unlimited, a vertical farming startup that was backed by Jeff Bezos and SoftBank before it filed for bankruptcy this year, and serves as the trustee for unsecured creditors in Zips Car Wash, one of the nation's largest privately owned carwash chains.

In addition to his bankruptcy work, Eghbali is the chief executive of a credit repair firm, Enrich Financial, and he established Goldman Sachs Capital LLC, which has no connection to Goldman Sachs, the well-known financial institution.

"No one by this name has ever worked at Goldman Sachs," a Goldman Sachs representative told The Wall Street Journal.

In September 2022, Eghbali registered Goldman Sachs Capital LLC with the California Secretary of State's office, listing himself as the organizer. A separate document with the same office that Eghbali signed in 2024 showed him as Goldman Sachs Capital LLC's chief executive officer, using the same address on Ventura Boulevard in Tarzana, Calif., as his other firms, Olympus Guardians and Enrich Financial.

A representative of the California Secretary of State's office said its business registration department is just a filing office that doesn't conduct oversight of brand or intellectual-property-related issues. The department's procedure is to cross-check the names of new filings against the ones in its system and it doesn't cross-check against nationally recognized brands.

Eghbali's LinkedIn page previously said he was Goldman Sachs Capital's chief operating officer, and that the business entity specialized in maximizing employee retention credits, known as ERCs, special benefits that businesses can receive from the government for having kept employees paid during the pandemic. Eghbali in recent days removed any mention of Goldman Sachs Capital from his LinkedIn page.

In an interview, Eghbali said that years ago he explored doing a business venture that he expected would receive funding from Goldman Sachs, the investment bank. So he registered Goldman Sachs Capital LLC because he thought the source of funds would be from Goldman. However, he didn't move forward with that venture, and instead used Goldman Sachs Capital LLC to conduct ERC-related business activities, Eghbali said.

Eghbali approaches trade vendors with claims in bankrupt companies, offering to represent them as a proxy on court-appointed creditor committees through his firm Olympus Guardians and to charge a 2% fee on recovered funds. Eghbali is knowledgeable about bankruptcy procedures and laws and is forceful in advocating for his clients, said a person who has worked with him.

Advisory and trustee work on behalf of creditor committees can be lucrative, with fees often running into the millions. The fees are paid by the bankrupt companies, not the creditors.

Olympus earns $15,000 a month for its work as the liquidating trustee of Plenty Unlimited. The firm lists involvement in more than 34 bankruptcy cases on its website, including Forever 21, Virgin Orbit, Hooters, Coin Cloud and Zips Car Wash.

Write to Alexander Gladstone at alexander.gladstone@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 05, 2025 17:24 ET (21:24 GMT)

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