by No stores or sleep shops slated for Antarctica — yet
We know about Ashley’s new 7,500-square-foot HomeStore in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, because the company issued a press release for its ribbon-cutting ceremony there in June. We also know about the new sleep shop in Brunei, also from a press release from the furniture giant on the 246th store Ashley has opened outside the United States and one of 1,100 Ashley locations in total.
But, Ashley’s first store in Nicaragua? For that news, we have to go to CE Noticias Financieras, a Spanish-language news source that does a good job tracking Ikea’s moves in South and Latin America and, it turns out, Ashley, as well.
A week ago, the business news site reported that a 2,000-square-foot Ashley store opened under license by the Khatib Group, which put up the nearly $1.4 million for construction. The site also reported that the Khatib Group is linked to the Daniel Ortega-Rosario Murillo dictatorship, which has systematically cracked down on political opposition, religious freedom and civil society organizations, according to the United Nations. Results of the crackdown include “serious” human rights violations, according to a report from Amnesty International.
These are not the kinds of “about us” sections that make for a winsome press release.
Ortega has served as leader of Nicaragua for a total of nearly 26 years, including from 1979 to 1990, as well as continuously since January 2007. He won re-election in 2006. (Remember the Iran-Contra affair, a scandal during the Reagan administration that included diversion of funds to support rebels attempting to unseat Ortega and his Sandinistas?) Conveniently, Murillo, who became co-president in February last year, is Ortega’s wife.
Notably, however, CE Noticias Financieras cited no sources to back up the “cozy with an oppressive government” claims. The story’s sources are a representative each of Ashley and of Grupo Khatib.
Licensed to sell
As a licensee, but not a franchisee, as Ashley is careful to point out, the Khatib Group received help building and opening the store. Licensees also get “regular on-site support” of operations and planning, as well as help tracking, measuring and improving “critical retail metrics like Closing Ratio, Average Ticket, and Walk-ins,” according to Ashley’s licensee website.
The Nicaragua store, which is located in central Managua (see map), began construction in December 2024 and opened to the public in late April this year. Supporting the opening, according to CE Noticias Financieras, was a “low-key advertising campaign” and coverage by “pro-government media outlets.”
Grupo Khatib also recently opened a KFC in Managua, and it owns Arte Casa, an upscale home and space design company. Arte Casa offers “premium interior and exterior architectural finishes, high-end kitchens and bathroom furnishings,” according to its website. Ashley is not the group’s first foray into home products and services, therefore.
Other than the information in CE Noticias Financieras, there is scant little information on the Khatib Group online or in the news databases. What I did find shows holdings in retail, bakeries and dining, and home furnishings and home décor. The group’s principals are Palestinian.
With 1,100 HomeStore locations, more than 20,000 total store fronts, and 23 manufacturing and distribution facilities, Ashley has come a long, long way since starting up in 1970 with one 35,000-square-foot factory in Wisconsin. And its expanding footprint globally in partnership with monied investor groups through licensed arrangements, but not franchises, is very similar to Ikea’s.
Ashley sale-leasebacks
Speaking of Ashley’s Palestinian business partners, let’s go to Connecticut, where the Hartford Business Journal is reporting that brothers Sami and Nazeeh Abunasra are seeking to sell two Ashley furniture store properties as part of sale-leaseback deals. The Abunasras, who fled Palestine to the U.S. as political refugees, told the newspaper that they plan to continue operating the Ashley stores in Newington and Manchester, respectively, but seek to sell the land and buildings to raise capital for another, unspecified investment, likely a residential development project.
The brothers also operate an Ashley Outlet store in a former Macy’s in Waterbury, Connecticut, south of Hartford, a property that the brothers acquired for $3.3 million in 2023. The outlet opened there in December 2024. They opened their first Ashley store in Manchester in 2013, then bought a bowling alley in Newington in 2017 and converted it into their second Ashley location. In August 2020, the brothers purchased commercial properties in West Hartford, part of a $34 million plan to develop mixed use residential and retail, according to the Journal.
Happy (belated) Father’s Day
Let’s end the Ashley report on a high note. Slipping by me in the hustle and bustle of travel this summer was the news that in June, Ashley’s Todd Wanek was among those celebrated as a “Father of the Year” in Tampa Bay. How cool is that?
Ashley’s president and CEO was quoted in the The National Father’s Day Committee press release as saying, “One of the things that I enjoy in life, more than anything, is being a father.” Because the annual award goes to people who take responsibility not just for themselves, but for others, Wanek said he was “honored to be recognized alongside so many who live that commitment every day.”
While we congratulate Todd with genuine affection, we are also puzzled by the lack of a phone call from the Committee or its “parent,” the Father’s Day/Mother’s Day Council. I mean, I have a T-shirt that reads, and I quote, “World’s Best Dad,” for heaven’s sakes. Maybe my invitation to the annual awards luncheon got lost in the mail?
Alms for the poor
One last news item, another concerning Florida-based millionaires.
Bloomberg’s David Voreacos, who has done tremendous work covering B. Riley Financial, Franchise Group, Brian Kahn and Prophecy Asset Management, just broke a story on Kahn and Kahn’s claimed inability to re-pay defrauded investors.
Court records show that the former CEO of Franchise Group and now employed by Phonix RBS/Max Home Furnishings has told a Delaware judge that even though he just bought a $6 million mansion in Florida, he cannot pay back investors defrauded by Prophecy Asset and, therefore, live up to arbitration judgments and obligations.
Kahn pleaded guilty in federal court in December to conspiracy to commit securities fraud; he faces five years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced in November. Investors who won their arbitration case against Kahn and a most recent judgment totaling $309 million are asking the Delaware Chancery Court to compel Kahn to detail his finances. Kahn says in a letter to the court that he already has detailed his finances, showing that there is “nothing left” from which to pay back.
Kahn’s letter puts his address in Islamorada, Florida, in a 5,200-square-foot, five-bedroom, six-bathroom waterfront home with a pool and a dock, according to Voreacos’s reporting.
From the ashes
Earlier this year, Phonix RBS acquired most of Buddy Mac Holdings’ stores and assets out of bankruptcy, stores it has since re-branded as Max Home Furnishings. Buddy Mac once was the largest franchisee for Buddy’s Home Furnishings, which was owned by Franchise Group until February this year, when BHF was sold off, also out of bankruptcy, to Skyline Investors.
Phonix RBS is a subsidiary of AF Newco, which acquired 31 American Freight stores out of bankruptcy from FRG for just $1.12 million.
The lender for the mortgage on Kahn’s new home is Dimmitt, Texas’s Frontier Capital, or at least was when the $7.6 million loan was taken out to purchase the home, according to Voreacos’ reporting. The name might sound familiar. Under oath in April 2025, AF Newco principal Michael Piper identified AF Newco’s owners, in addition to himself, as Brent Turner, former CEO at Liberty Tax; Piper’s brother, Scott Piper; Jack Kleinert; and Boston-based Frontier Capital. Quite a coincidence, but the two Frontier Capitals do not appear to be in any way connected.
Piper and Turner worked with Kahn at FRG as executives at Liberty Tax. In June 2019, B. Riley brokered the formation of FRG in a $138 million deal that combined Liberty Tax and Buddy’s Home Furnishings.
According to Yelp, the Frontier Capital in Texas is a “small financial services and investment firm located in Dimmitt, Texas, known for buying discounted loans from troubled or defunct lenders.” Its treasurer, David Schaeffer, issued Kahn’s most recent home loan, at $1.5 million over the asking price, according to Bloomberg.
Despite selling his previous residence in metro Orlando for $11 million just a week before his December 2025 court appearance, Kahn claimed at that December hearing that he was “financially unable to employ counsel” and requested a court-appointed attorney.
