McKenna and Gornick Dispute CTN Investor Story

(Editor’s note: the lawsuit above was filed in November 2025.)

Patrick McKenna and Leslie Gronick have both disputed that they were involved in real estate deals that lost investors millions. The story (“Investors Allege Losing Millions through Patrick McKenna’s Companies”) was printed March 15.

The editor was first made aware of the story in 2018, when two different people approached me and told me I should look into McKenna’s Pacific Palisades companies. This editor replied that unless there was a court case with a verdict, it would be simply “he said, she said.”

As recently as this past January, this editor was approached by a person in a local store and told that people had lost money and please do a story. In February, I received information about court case that had been settled in an investor’s favor and also received two more court cases that had been filed and will be heard.  Below Brittany Perrineau was granted a judgment of $858,781.

In addition to the four people mentioned in the earlier story, I reached out to or received the names of six other people who had purportedly lost money.

After the story printed, I received calls from people who told me that in addition to the 1362 Bella Oceana Vista (Pratt House) and , I should check on properties at 1635 Casalle Road (that the  owners had lost everything), to check on a second home on Alcima (beside 15975 in which there is a lawsuit), a house on Gunston in Brentwood and one at 533 Swarthmore Ave.

Leslie Gornick’s comments are posted on the website, they are also below.

I am writing to address this article and subsequent discussion in which my name appears. I worked for Patrick McKenna from 2015 until the fires occurred in January 2026.

I performed administrative duties for his companies. He was a Real Estate Developer that built high end multi-million-dollar homes. The impact of Covid resulted in the costs of the build exceeding what the homes eventually sold for or in some instance the bank foreclosed. While I respect the platform’s role in reporting, I want to address errors that I am aware of and can document and where my name is stated.
Error 1: there were active projects and businesses being run by Patrick McKenna at the time of the fire.

Error 2: Eric Knight partnered with Patrick McKenna and was the Realtor and Developer on the failed projects. He was involved in all aspects of these projects from the Design, Management, Build and Sale. Eric Knight brought his own group of investors that invested in their projects. It was not just an introduction. He was a party to all decisions made concerning any of the investors on the projects he was involved in.

Error 3: 1362 Bella Oceana Vista contracts never stated that an investor who invested $200,000 would receive a 1.8M return on their investment. I have seen the contracts as part of my administrative duties.

Error 4: Brittany Perrineau did not “win” her case, her legal team used tactics to obtain a Default Judgment in a case that she named me in. After two years of defending her false allegations against me I now have to fight her legal teams’ tactics to create more expense and hardship to defend against this Default Judgment and have this case heard in court. Thousands of documents have been produced to her legal team and there is nothing left to provide. I am working with legal counsel to correct this. Perrineau repeatedly said she would not stop her legal action unless she recouped what was lost in a failed project, she was not doing this for others and has made that very clear.

Error 5: Taro “Karl” Greenfeld mentions my name in a statement that is defamatory with no basis. I was an employee of Patrick McKenna, I had no ownership in his companies. I have never been involved in any fraudulent activities or criminal enterprise. I was a business owner in Pacific Palisades in an unrelated business that served the Palisades community and was well respected and enjoyed and successfully operating until the fire. I am not involved in any legal action with Greenfeld.

The home at Bella Oceana Vista was purchased by Palisades Funding for $6,050,000. The home sold for $15,601,500 in 2018. Investors said they didn’t receive promised monies.

Patrick McKenna sent the following letter to CTN: While I respect your platform’s role in reporting, your article contains multiple significant factual errors as well as erroneous and false statements. Specifically, some of them include but are not limited to the following –

1. You fail to mention that Eric Knight was the realtor, developer, project manager and/or partner on a all of these projects you mention in the article.  His duties included but were not limited to managing the projects, creating the budgets for the projects, working with the general contractors to make sure the projects were on schedule, tracking the scope of completion throughout the projects, etc.
2.  In the article you mention the project on Bella Oceana and state what we purchased the home for and the price that the home sold.  You failed to add any of the costs it took to construct a 12,900 square foot home as well as the carrying costs and costs of sale.  If you had done simple math you would have realized that the profit was nowhere near what your named quote claimed in regards to what he was expecting for profit.  Lee Helper, Eric’s friend, signed agreements and they never reflected that there would be $1.8M in profit. Doing a simple equation based on what he is quoting would require a $24,000,000 profit which is mathematically impossible based on the sale price being $15,601,500 less purchase price, construction costs, carrying costs and sales costs.  The home would have had to sell for almost $40,000,000.  Eric Knight could have answered these questions, he was the project manager and realtor on the project and had intimate knowledge of the budget, design, construction etc.
3. The article fails to mention any of the issues that we had with Eric Knight including threats of physical violence against myself and my office staff, having to send him a cease and desist letter on 4/20/21 for his actions including trying to disrupt a sale of one of our properties when he was the listing agent a direct violation of his duties as agent.
4. You have a quote in here stating that I “stole millions?”  This is absolutely inaccurate and complete slander to my reputation. [ The actual quote was “It is remarkable to me how a person can steal millions of dollars, yet most members of our community will not seek legal redress,” Palisades resident Karl Taro Greenfeld told Circling the News.] As I stated to you, we had some projects that due to circumstances beyond our control, caused projects to be unprofitable, that had losses.  The accounting has been provided to the investors. For anyone to say that I stole millions and for you to print this without fact checking is defamation and slander.
5. You mention that I did not have any projects at the time of the fire, which is completely untrue.  One of my newly completed projects was in escrow to sell burned to the ground.
6. You mention that “After a deposition, which Knight says is not truthful (and has the documents to support his assertation) he will undergo mediation with McKenna later this month.”  Did you see any court documents or paperwork that he is claiming?  Knight does not have a case filed against me nor is there any mediation with me, this is completely untrue and you have no justification in writing this.
7. You fail to mention that Eric Knight at the time was employed by Berkshire Hathaway and is no longer there.  Did you bother to ask him why he switched agencies?  He is no longer there because of his unethical behavior when acting as an agent and I do have all the documents to support this.

McKenna concluded, I am formally requesting you to remove this article from your website immediately and am seeking counsel for actions against you and your website. I look forward to your immediate response and action.

(Below is another suit, filed in court in November 2022 and still active.)