In September 2007, The Barbary Coast News, a cheerleading website for the tony neighborhood in San Francisco’s financial district, raved about Opulent Lite investment manager Neil Godbole’s two penthouse condominiums on 733 Front Street, which he was busy combining and transforming into a “2,500-square-foot-bachelor-dream-castle in the air,” as he toyed with “a veritable candy land of architectural and design ideas.”
“I like modern, open space,” Godbole told the website, “so we’re knocking out walls, repositioning the kitchen and building in a 800-square-foot, sound-proof music studio with a console, vocal booth, recording studio and stage area.” The Barbary Coast News was so enamored by the over-the-top project that it followed up eight months later in May 2008, which turns out, in retrospect, to be a period when Godbole’s hedge fund was teetering financially. The website published an effusive report on the completed “dream bachelor pad” with its “spectacular views of the Bay, the Financial District and the City,” as well as a “library, a soundproof recording studio, and a chat area” with “its own wine bar and sink.” The article raved that Godbole had “used the Internet to scour the world for the latest, most imaginative solutions,” including a “new TV lift that drops the screen out of the ceiling,” gushingly noting that, “The TV screen, recessed into the ceiling, drops down on command and likewise retracts when Neil tires of his toy.” After Opulent Lite was liquidated, Neil’s “special paradise” was placed on the market with an asking price of almost $4.4 million “because Neil had no current income and could not afford the negative cash flow,” according to his attorney Jahan Raissi. Sotheby’s promotional literature painstakingly detailed the apartment’s many high end, custom fixtures, such as Caesar Stone quartz countertops, Bosch, Thermador, and Sharp appliances, Danze kitchen faucets, Elkay Elum cabinetry, Ann Saks Glass Tiles, Wall Mounted Luminaire lighting system, etc., etc. Following Little India inquiries, Godbole prodded The Barbara Coast News to remove its effusive tributes to his opulent home and lifestyle from its website. Publisher Connie Hazel said, “Neil prefers not be in the limelight and we’ve obliged him.” They may not be the only gloating features he is dodging on the web. A column, titled “Growing Up in US,” authored by Godbole in the Spandan newsletter of Karhade.net, a Marathi sub ethnic website, is also no longer accessible. In the article, Godbole, who graduated from the University of California in Los Angeles, in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in cognitive science and is an occasional music impresario, writes that he was “basically jobless” when “through my father, I was introduced to the world of finances and trading.”
In 2005 when he was just 25, Godbole was brought in as investment manager of Opulent Lite, a second hedge fund launched by his father, Vishwas Godbole, in October 2004. His sister Nina Kulick, who sells totes, baby gear and paper goods online under Goosebury Press, served as general partner of the hedge fund. As investment manager of the fund, which peaked at over $29 million, Neil Godbole wrote, “You can call me a stock market voyeur.” He prattled about the flexibility of his home workplace and schedule, “which allows me to enjoy a good portion of the day doing anything I like, at a time when there are almost never any crowds.” He concluded wistfully, “I generally work from home, and I can even work while traveling. Last month I executed transactions from a cruise ship via a satellite internet connection from Alaska!” In his spare time, Godbole starred in several spoofy You Tube home videos under the penname Neip, including Neip – The Marathi Bull, Neip Goes Boating, Neip – The Drunk Marathi Dude, and Neip – Maharashtrian on Crack. The last video has been posted on several websites, such as Punjabi Lok Virsa, with the teaser, “This is a video of my buddy Neip acting like he is on crack … well maybe he really is … you never know with Neip.” Godbole and Opulent Lite are currently being sued for fraud, negligence and breach of fiduciary duties by investors, who lost almost half their money after the fund restated almost $12 million in losses in February 2009. The investors accuse Gobole of trading in rollover options when they may not have been authorized under the investor prospectus. In the Spandan article, authored long before his current troubles surfaced, Godbole spoke gravely about his professional responsibilities: “I am hired by a fund which is comprised of investment partners wishing to invest their money in a particular way in adherence to an agreed upon prospectus….. Since I handle client money, I have a fiduciary (moral and ethical) responsibility when overlooking and conducting trades….” The investor claims may well turn on how well Godbole lived up to his self-described obligations. Meanwhile, the hedge fund he managed has been liquidated and Godbole has moved out of his lavish Front Street penthouse. An examination of records at the San Francisco Office of the Assessor-Recorder reveals that the condominium was created from two separate units, one bought by Neil on July 31, 2007, for $950,000 and the other by his parents Vishwas and Aarati Godbole on the same day for $2.5 million. Neil transferred his ownership interest in the apartment to his parents prior to its sale for almost $3.85 million on March 24, 2010, resulting in nearly $1 million in equity proceeds after discounting almost $2.5 million in outstanding mortgages on the property.
According to Raissi: “The proceeds from the sale of the property resulted in Neil receiving the same net amount as he would have received if he was the direct seller of his unit to the new buyer. The intermediate transaction between Neil and Vishwas was only to facilitate the transfer of both units to a buyer who wanted the sale recorded on a single grant deed.” A few years earlier, Neil Godbole transferred another home he owned at 541 Darien Way, San Francisco, which is valued at $1.7 million, according to Zillow, to his sister and brother-in-law Nina and Aaron Kulick on May 31, 2007, in what the grant deed listed as an “interfamily transfer.” As a result, he does not seem to own any property, according to San Francisco Assessor-Recorders records. He is presently renting a more modest pad, valued at $1.5 million, located just six blocks from his surreal, Front Street “bachelor-dream-castle in the air” in San Francisco’s financial district.
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Opulence Lost
