Suit alleges one investor was playing both sides.
Details have emerged in a current lawsuit alleging impropriety in an agreement between the Paul Allen Estate and Texas business owner Tom Dundon to purchase the Portland Trail Blazers. The agreement was announced on September 12th, 2025 with news of the suit breaking on September 23rd.
The complaint was filed in a Delaware court by plaintiffs RAJ Sports Holding LLC, led by brother and sister duo Alex Bhathal and Lisa Bhathal Merage. The siblings own the Portland Thorns of the NWSL and the WNBA’s Portland Fire. They were also interested bidders for the Trail Blazers. Ultimately Dundon won the race, but as the suit alleges, the process may have been fouled by conflicting interests.
Court documents were unsealed today revealing the heart of the complaint. The Athletic does a fairly good job of summarizing [subscription required].
The issue revolves around the participation of Andrew and Peggy Cherng, co-founders of the Panda Express chain of restaurants and minority investors in Dundon’s ownership group. According to the lawsuit, before they joined that coalition, the Cherng family was part of the Bhathal-Merage group, pledged to invest with access to planning/coordination sessions and privileged information regarding the inner workings of the bid.
The heart of the matter comes in this assertion from the Athletic piece:
[The lawsuit] states that RAJ Sports entered an exclusivity agreement on July 24, 2025, with Andrew and Peggy Cherng, who own Panda Express, to become an “anchor investor” in purchasing the Trail Blazers, with the intention of having the Cherngs serve as an alternate governor should the bid succeed. However, on Sept. 12, when the Trail Blazers announced a purchase agreement with a group led by Tom Dundon, the Cherngs, and their $7.5 billion net worth, were listed among Dundon’s investors.
The waters are not perfectly clear, however, as the Cherngs apparently backed out of the Bhathal-Merage bid weeks before the actual completion of the offer. But even that was not without gray area.
RAJ and the Cherngs had a falling out after a two-and-a-half-hour meeting to discuss an open-issues list. At 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 28, the Cherngs’ representatives sent an email to RAJ Sports, saying, “Our client has asked us to put pencils down on the deal. They have asked us to inform you they are ceasing discussions.”
According to the suit, on the morning of Aug. 28, Alex Bhathal called Andrew Cherng and asked if he was part of the Dundon group, and Cherng “explicitly assured Bhathal that defendants were not in discussions with Dundon’s group and had no plans to do so.” The suit says that Cherng went further and said that although he wasn’t “quite there yet” on the deal, RAJ could report the Cherng Family Trust as one of its co-investors to the NBA.
For those keeping score, the tick-tock of allegations runs:
July 24th–The Cherngs and Bhathal-Merages enter into an exclusivity agreement, after which the Cherngs are privy to inside information on the bid for the Blazers.
August 28th–The Cherngs inform the Bhathal-Merages via email at midnight that they [the Cherngs] are ceasing discussions. Some hours later, Alex Bhathal talks to Andrew Cherng directly, via phone, and receives assurance that the Cherngs are not part of the Dundon group, have no intention of joining the opposing bid, and can still be listed as a co-investor on the Bhathal-Merage offer.
September 12th–News of the Dundon offer acceptance breaks, including the Cherngs as minority investors.
Obviously lawyers, legal experts, and judges will determine the validity of the claims. At first glance, they would seem to ride on the provisions of the original exclusivity agreement plus the applicability (and any binding nature) of the Cherngs’ communications as they exited the Bhathal-Merage bidding group.
Per the Athletic report, the RAJ Sports Holding LLC is seeking to stop the Cherngs from participating in the Trail Blazers purchase and to provide restitution in the form of damages.
The suit claims that the Cherngs’ representation made claims that were “false and made with the intent to deceive.” The suit asks the judge to stop the Cherngs from “circumventing, bypassing, interfering with, competing with, or attempting to circumvent, bypass, interfere with, or compete with Plaintiff with respect to any transaction involving the Trail Blazers franchise, any portion of the Trail Blazers franchise’s assets, or any direct or indirect equity interests in the Trail Blazers franchise.”
RAJ Sports is seeking damages in an amount to be determined at trial. RAJ also filed for a restraining order and for the lawsuit to get an expedited proceeding.
We’ll keep updating as this story develops. Law360 [subscription required] is also a good source for legal information in sports lawsuits like this one.
Category: General Sports
