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Stop me if you’ve heard this one: a professional athlete is filing for bankruptcy due to poor management of their immense wealth.
Nothing new, right?
Well I promise you’ve never heard anything like the story of NHL goaltender Robin Lehner.
Lehner is a Swedish goalie who is the starter for the Vegas Golden Knights. He gained popularity a number of years ago for speaking out about his struggles with his mental health and addiction.
But he’s not without his detractors, either. Lehner met criticism when he ripped into the NHL for its COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
On the ice, he’s been solid this season. Lehner’s made 44 starts with a 23-17-2 record and a .907 save percentage. But off the ice is where things apparently get pretty wild.
Vegas Golden Knights Goalie Robin Lehner Files For Bankruptcy
According to court records, Lehner and his wife Donya recently filed for bankruptcy. Usually, when you hear of an athlete doing this they’ve long since retired from their sport.
But Lehner’s case is much, much different. According to Sin Bin Vegas, Lehner filed for bankruptcy due to his ownership of an exotic snake farm in Missouri.
Robin Lehner has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy linked to his ownership of an exotic snake farm in Missouri.
The filing lists Lehner's liability between $10-50 million, and lists the same lending agency that was sued in Evander Kane's bankruptcy.https://t.co/UmWSkLOeiv
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) January 14, 2023
In the bankruptcy filing documents, Lehner is said to be the owner of RL Exotics LLC, “which operates a reptile farm in Plato, Missouri, which is an operating business with 3 employees, and which requires reptiles to be maintained and fed.”
Lehner was first linked to snakes back in 2017 when he reportedly purchased a collection of exotic snakes for $1.2 million.
But the story only gets weirder from there. As it turns out, Lehner purchased the snakes from a man named Ben Renick. Renick was then murdered by his wife Lynlee who was found guilty and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Lehner then faced a lawsuit after he allegedly stopped making payments on the snakes. He then countersued before coming to a settlement in 2019.
The bankruptcy filing comes amid rising costs for the farm and Lehner’s inability to keep up with them.
The bankruptcy claims that Lehner’s debts are “primarily based on business debts that were incurred to help obtain money for a business or investment.”
In an email to SinBin.vegas, the attorney representing Robin Lehner says both the Golden Knights’ team counsel and creditors have been made aware of the bankruptcy filing.
What a wild, wild story.