Axar Capital, a private equity firm, has been previously accused of wrongdoing by MCA funders and a committee overseeing the Avant Gardner venue in Brooklyn. Yet, despite these allegations, Axar has managed to secure deals and is now on a fast track to exit all legal liabilities. The torch is now being passed to PACHA, owned by Five Holdings, with Kabir Mulchandani - a person once accused of real estate fraud and who spent 140 days in jail who’s been making quite a comeback and will have a decisive voice the future of the Brooklyn nightlife scene.

How Brooklyn Mirage Became a Financial Asset: Inside the Bankruptcy and $120M Axar Loan

Shots Fired Near Brooklyn Paramount Prompt Temporary LIU Lockdown; on March 2, 2026 ..

In the wake of Electric Zoo's recent bankruptcy announcement, eligible ticket holders are now seeking clarity on the refund process. Although a similar plan was proposed in June 2024, the focus has shifted to the timing and availability of funds for these refunds. As Electric Zoo navigates this challenging situation, the community anxiously awaits updates on how much money will remain after previous claims have been processed. With fans eager for answers, the festival's commitment to transparency will be crucial in maintaining trust and engagement.

In early 2025, as the Mirage moved through its final construction phase, a set of recurring internal updates began to circulate among management and governance stakeholders, according to individuals familiar with the reporting process and materials reviewed by Unmixed. These updates documented installation milestones alongside revised budget assumptions and advance ticket projections for reopening-week performances – placing forward sales into the same reporting stream as procurement timelines, engineering inputs, and cost adjustments as late-stage assumptions hardened into fixed spend.

Spotify founder Daniel Ek’s move to executive chairman looks like a step back–but what happens to accountability, artist payouts, and platform power when founders ‘delegate’?

Wasserman is exploring a sale after Epstein-related documents resurfaced communications between CEO Casey Wasserman and Ghislaine Maxwell—prompting client departures and placing one of live music’s most important touring intermediaries into a formal auction process. As artists publicly distance themselves to manage reputational risk, the fallout is exposing how leadership scandal can cascade through the touring infrastructure that underpins the global live economy.

If prior Mirage related issues were attributed to problems with initial drawings or plan sets, what specifically were those deficiencies and how were they identified? And if the February 3 2026 New Work filing has been submitted under the same ownership entity and Architect of Record, what ultimately prompted continuity in the design team and what if anything has changed in the plans now moving forward?

Electronic Dance Music is projected to grow from $10.17B in 2024 to $19.17B by 2033 — with live events driving 55% of that growth. As capital flows into festivals, venues, and catalogs — and ownership consolidates among major operators like Live Nation, AEG Presents, CTS Eventim, and Superstruct — decisions that once belonged to promoters may increasingly sit inside portfolios.

We break down the shift in 7 steps:

In just 17-minutes, Judge Walrath approved AGDP's late-night plan (Dkt. 583)–admitting she'd not reviewed it. Faris (Young Conaway/Axar) hyped CEO Gary Richards endlessly; Verita's older rep stumbled on foggy technical point. No objections. Confirmation done.

Key Roles: Richards (CEO), Yazhari (plan admin), Nahas ($15K/mo trustee ahead of unsecureds). CVR now $90M trigger + $3.5M guaranteed.

Pacha eyes June relaunch post-demo–but NYC DOB permits? Unrealistic timeline. Creditors wait. Transparency alarm sounded harsh.

By the time most New Yorkers heard the word “bankruptcy,” the real work on Brooklyn Mirage was already done. The dog had been buried years earlier–under term sheets, political favors, and construction shortcuts that never cleared daylight.

"The Liquidating Trustee's fixed fee doesn't just tick up—it jumps from a token $3,000 a month to a $15,000 monthly retainer, on top of hourly billing and contingent upside tied to new recoveries. According to the confirmed plan filed at Docket 575, Joshua Nahas of Dundon Advisers LLC becomes the single most powerful actor in Brooklyn Mirage's estate afterlife—paid first, indemnified heavily, and armed with broad discretion over which claims to pursue or drop."

From Avant Gardner's bankruptcy documents, the math looks brutal: every month the case drags on, $15K comes off the top before vendors, contractors, or artists see a dime. Unmixd has reached out to Gary Richards, CEO and public face of Brooklyn Mirage, for comment on what this means for unsecured creditors still waiting. No response by press time.

Oaktree Solutions Ltd., tied to ex-Adams chief of staff, filed $90K claim in Brooklyn Mirage bankruptcy.

Court docs show Frank Carone & Billy Bildstein signatures. Pacha takeover advances despite federal probe ties.

Key revelations:

• Billy Bildstein owned 100% of Avant Gardner at collapse

• Axar Capital now owns site; FIVE Holdings (Pacha) to operate if court approves.

• $90K owed to Oaktree for mysterious "services provided"

• Frank Carone signatures appear on claim docs

• NYT (Jan 30): Brooklyn grand jury probes Carone's business dealings

Pacha’s return is backed by a Dubai luxury group with a 460 million dollar credit line, hundreds of millions in hotel revenue, and global expansion plans—not a mom‑and‑pop club rescue for Brooklyn’s once largest independent venue, while bankruptcy language and unpaid claims trail behind.

On January 27, 2026, the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors filed a statement withdrawing its support for the plan. The document was surgical and quite frankly, very ‘techno’ in spirit. Point by point, the committee laid out how Axar had:…

On New Year’s Day, outlets announced Brooklyn Mirage had been sold to the group behind Pacha. Three weeks later, the creditors’ committee told a Delaware judge the deal they were promised had been quietly gutted by Axar — and that without that very press leak, no one in the courtroom would have known.

Every January, Martin Luther King Jr.’s words reappear — quoted, sampled, softened. They drift through timelines and playlists as proof of progress, detached from the economic and racial violence he spent his final years naming directly. In public memory, King is remembered for hope more than confrontation, for dreams more than systems.

In music culture, this flattening is especially visible. Radical Black thought becomes atmosphere. Protest becomes mood. History becomes heritage branding.

Dance music is not immune. In fact, it may be one of the most aggressively sanitized spaces of all. Often framed as escape — sound as release, the club as refuge — its political origins are routinely stripped away. But dance music did not begin as an escape from politics. It emerged from them.

In cities marked by segregation, disinvestment, and racialized neglect, electronic music functioned as infrastructure: a way to build futures where none were offered, to hold space where safety did not exist, to imagine worlds beyond racial capitalism.

This editorial isn’t about vibes or optimism. It’s about receipts. In 2025, harm became measurable, access became enforceable, and AI exposed how easily artists’ labor can be stripped of authorship and pay. From quantified hate to ADA enforcement to the AI royalty loophole, this is a line in the sand. Refusal, in 2026, is structural.

Suno and Udio are reshaping the landscape of intellectual property , without resolving who gets paid.
Read why mass information is masking mass erasure, from education to music to AI, and why preserving memory, credit, and ownership now demands collective resistance.