Ousted Arch Co-Founder Sues Firm From His Own Bankruptcy

Jeffrey Simpson, the Arch Companies co-founder a bankruptcy judge removed from control of the firm in 2023, filed a new lawsuit against Arch Real Estate Holdings LLC on September 25, according to a docket entry on CourtListener. The complaint arrived alongside a motion for a preliminary injunction and a supporting declaration, all filed the same day in the same court now overseeing Simpson’s own personal Chapter 11 case.

Why it matters

The filing extends a fight that has run since 2023, when Simpson and co-founder Jared Chassen accused each other of misappropriating money and tried to fire one another, and a judge ultimately installed investor 35 Oak Capital as Acting Managing Member of Arch Real Estate Holdings, the entity that holds Arch’s rent-stabilized New York portfolio. Simpson later put an Arch-affiliated entity into Chapter 11 himself and, this February, filed personal bankruptcy. That his new suit against the holding company now runs through the same judge handling his own Chapter 11 case, rather than through New York state court where the earlier fight played out, signals he is using the bankruptcy forum to reopen the dispute over control of the portfolio.

The numbers

The new adversary proceeding is docketed as No. 26-01097 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, assigned to Judge Lisa G. Beckerman. Three items hit the docket on September 25, 2026: a complaint, a motion for a preliminary injunction and a declaration. Judge Beckerman is also assigned to Simpson’s individual Chapter 11 case, No. 26-10359, filed February 19, 2026. The complaint’s text was not available in CourtListener’s public RECAP archive as of publication, so the specific claims, any dollar figures and the properties at issue are not yet confirmed.

What’s next

A preliminary injunction motion typically forces an early hearing, so a ruling or scheduling order in No. 26-01097 is the next signal to watch for how far Judge Beckerman lets Simpson’s case proceed. This article will update with the complaint’s substance once it clears into the public record. The fight sits inside the broader New York market’s rent-stabilized ownership landscape, where lender and investor disputes over distressed multifamily portfolios have become a recurring story this year.