Adelphia Seeks to Curb Rigases

Adelphia Communications Corp. asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to stop its founder from selling property that the cable television systems owner said is at least partly owned by the company.

Adelphia said that John J. Rigas and other family members had a “pattern of using Adelphia’s funds to purchase and maintain their real estate assets” and that the company probably owned an interest in “any parcel of real property in which the Rigases claim an interest and seek to liquidate.”

At least one property is under contract for sale, according to documents filed late Monday in Bankruptcy Court in New York.

Attorneys for the Rigases didn’t return calls seeking comment.

Adelphia filed a civil complaint July 24 accusing the Rigases of conspiring to use company funds for their own benefit and filing false financial statements that didn’t reveal those transactions.

Rigas, 77, and two sons were arrested July 24 on charges of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the cable company.

An Adelphia employee said in a declaration accompanying Monday’s motion that he had been informed that John Rigas had contracted to sell a property in Hilton Head Island, S.C., for $560,000 and was preparing to sell properties in Roslyn, N.Y.