Category Archives: Bankruptcy

Gymboree filed for bankruptcy protections, making it the latest casualty in a long line of troubled retailers. Gymboree filed for bankruptcy protections, making it the latest casualty in a long line of troubled retailers.

(CNN) - Gymboree filed for bankruptcy protections, making it the latest casualty in a long line of troubled retailers.

The children's clothing retailer said it has reached an agreement with its lenders that will allow it to stay in business as it attempts to restructure. It has arranged to borrow an additional $35 million to finance operations during the restructuring. The company's announcement did not include any plans for store closings.

The company has nearly 1,300 stores, including about 750 with the Gymboree brand as well as stores under the Crazy 8 and Janie and Jack brands. It had about 12,000 employees as of last summer, according to a company filing.

Gymboree filed for bankruptcy protections, making it the latest casualty in a long line of troubled retailers.

The children's clothing retailer said it has reached an agreement with its lenders that will allow it to stay in business as it attempts to restructure. It has arranged to borrow an additional $35 million to finance operations during the restructuring. The company's announcement did not include any plans for store closings.

The company has nearly 1,300 stores, including about 750 with the Gymboree brand as well as stores under the Crazy 8 and Janie and Jack brands. It had about 12,000 employees as of last summer, according to a company filing.

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Gymboree is filing for bankruptcy - Big Country Homepage

Written by Shaji Vikraman | Updated: June 12, 2017 12:38 am There is heightened attention on the new process because existing laws and mechanisms such as corporate debt restructuring, which were meant to address the issue of bad debt, havent quite worked.

Indias new bankruptcy law which came into force at the end of last year, about 18 months after it was formally proposed in early 2015 will face its first test later this month when the resolution plan for Kolkata-based Nicco Industries is adjudicated. The adjudication process will signal whether the sick company can be restructured or shut down swiftly within 180 days of the case being registered.

Over 1,000 applications for resolution have been filed, more than 100 of which have been admitted by the arbiter, the National Company Law Tribunal or NCLT, which is expected to decide on the fate of many non-financial firms within 180 days.

Read | Explaining the Bankruptcy law and the need to have one

Closely watching the working of the Bankruptcy Code the rules for which have been framed by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India or IBBI, which regulates the professionals handling the process will be banks sitting on a mountain of bad debt of over Rs 6 lakh crore, Indias central bank, which is now mandated to direct local lenders to quickly resolve hundreds of cases of firms that have defaulted on their loans and gone belly up, as well as investors known as vulture funds in the West who swoop on such assets, hoping to buy them at rock bottom rates, and make money down the line, following a turnaround.

There is heightened attention on the new process because existing laws and mechanisms such as corporate debt restructuring, which were meant to address the issue of bad debt, havent quite worked.

By the end of this year by when the mandatory 180-day deadline for resolution is reached in a few other cases as well the initial experience of an important reform will be manifest. The stakes are high because the way in which the bankruptcy process evolves, will be crucial for boosting the countrys ranking in the Ease of Doing Business sweepstakes. A little after his government took over, Prime Minister Modi had said that the aim was to take India from a ranking of 142 in 2014 to the top 50 in three years.

There is much more at stake. Speedy resolution of the debt woes of lenders will mean freeing up of capital for fresh lending to Indias businessmen, including small and medium entrepreneurs and industry. It will lead to a more efficient allocation of resources, as well as the development of a market for secondary assets, which the country badly needs rather than the destruction of value of assets, which inevitably results from long delays in settling cases. This will count significantly for banks and lenders in India who, under the looming shadow of investigative agencies, currently baulk at taking decisions such as those on a haircut or accepting a lower value of assets. It is a new experience for India to have a group of lenders or equity or debt holders to approach the NCLT to establish default. If the Tribunal is satisfied and admits the case, a set of people known as insolvency professionals chartered accountants, cost accountants or company secretaries who are regulated by the IBBI, step in. They prepare a resolution plan, which involves restructuring where possible, or liquidation where it is concluded that nothing will work and it is better for the firm to die. The plan must be approved by 75 % of the voting share of creditors, and then sanctioned by the adjudicating authority, the NCLT.

For the new band of insolvency professionals too, it will be a learning process to take de facto interim charge of the firms. They too will be tested. By the end of the year, the number of registered insolvency professionals could top 1000.

Perhaps it would be pragmatic to expect equity and debt holders to try out this route for only some of the worst cases in the initial phase. Theres a good reason. The market for buyouts of distressed assets is yet to develop which means that those whose money is at stake may have to settle for a lower value. Over the next few years, as professional insolvency services improve and the ecosystem for an efficient resolution develops, the impact of this reform will be felt, according to M S Sahoo, who heads the IBBI.

Indias Bankruptcy Code is modelled on the lines of what is in vogue in the US, which has what are known as Chapter 7, 11 and 15 bankruptcies, and the United Kingdom, where resolution has to be within 12 months.

The way the resolution process works in the initial phase will influence decisions to take recourse to it for addressing bigger cases of default. For that, India will need to equip the NCLT better the Tribunal has started off with 11 benches, which could be too few given the huge number of cases that could potentially come up. The bigger challenge will be at the time when cases of individuals are taken up for resolution this is expected a year or so down the line. It would mean putting in place Debt Recovery Tribunals across the country, where individuals can seek to recover their money. And also when the resolution process begins for financial firms like banks which need to be either revived or shut down.

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Why test for bankruptcy law is a larger test for India - The Indian Express

Ignite Restaurant Group Inc., the operator of the Joes Crab Shack and Brick House Tavern & Tap chains, has filed for bankruptcy with an eye toward a possible sale to an affiliate of Kelly Investment Group.

Ignite has seen sales decline as the U.S. dining sector faces drops in customer traffic. The company listed estimated total debts as of April 30 of $197.3 million in Chapter 11 papers filed Tuesday in Houston federal court. Assets totaled $153.4 million.

Ignite announced in April that Robert S. Merritt had resigned as chief executive officer and left the board. Jonathan Tibus, a managing director at turnaround firm Alvarez & Marsal, was chosen to replace him.

The debtors have continued to experience declining financial performance and declines in comparable restaurant sales and income from operations at Joes and Brick House, Tibus said in a court filing. The debtors have closed underperforming restaurants and implemented cost reduction measures to help mitigate the effect of these declines and improve their financial position and liquidity.

Ignite began looking around for a buyer last year, but as its condition deteriorated, viable offers dried up. In June, Ignite lined up Kelly affiliate KRG Acquisitions Co. as a stalking horse to open bidding in a court-supervised auction. KRGs offer consists of $50 million and assumption of liabilities.

Ignite says all Joes Crab Shack and Brick House Tavern restaurants will remain open as it goes through the bankruptcy and sales process. In an FAQ, the company says that it will continue to accept gift cards, coupons and other promotions in accordance with its policies.

Joes Crab Shack made headlines last year when the company backed away from its no-tipping policy that began in November 2015., according to Consumerist, a consumer website that is a not-for-profit subsidiary of Consumer Reports.

Under the policy, the company said it would implement a new set wage practice. Servers were to be paid at a rate starting at $14/hour based on their past performance, Consumerist reported. To generate the revenue needed for the new wages, the company executed a 12 percent to 15 percent increase to the restaurants menu.

Six months later, the company ditched the policy and brought back its standard system.

The broader U.S. restaurant industry is suffering headwinds on multiple fronts. Eateries are relying more heavily on discounts and specials to attract diners, crimping profit margins. And a historic bout of food deflation has turned grocery stores into a bigger bargain. Thats made consumers more likely to eat meals at home.

Chain restaurants also are losing market share to mom-and-pop places a shift for the industry. Sales for independent restaurants are expected to grow about 5 percent through 2020, while chains will climb just 3 percent, according to Pentallect Inc., a research firm in Chicago.

Ignite operates 112 Joes including one in Jacksonville Beach and 25 Brick House restaurants only ones in Florida are in Orlando and Tampa in 32 states, plus three franchises in the United Arab Emirates, according to court papers. It employs 8,400 people, including 5,500 part-time workers. The first Joes opened in Houston in 1991.

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Owner of Joe's Crab Shack files for bankruptcy | Jacksonville News ... - Florida Times-Union

Carol M. Highsmith / Library of Congress

The Hartford skyline

At a May 22 town hall meeting on Hartfords dire budget situation, a resident urged Mayor Luke Bronin not to file for bankruptcy, saying it would be a death knell for the city.

Would it?

Almost since taking office at the beginning of last year, Bronin has proclaimed from the metaphorical rooftops that the capital city doesnt have the resources to meet its increasing financial obligations and is at risk of insolvency.

The city patched the last hole in the current budget with short-term borrowing and faces a projected $65 million gap in next years budget, with no new sources of revenue. Withoutadditional help $40 million more from the state and union concessions that mostly have yet to materialize Bronin has said he will not rule out filing for bankruptcy.

A Hartford bankruptcy is almost incomprehensible to those who remember the citys thriving downtown and humming factories in the post-World War II years. But the reality is that after decades of slow decline, marked by middle-class flight, rising costs and loss of its once-imposing manufacturing base, the city is tapped out.

Most agree that a bankruptcy filing by the states capital city would be a major embarrassment for the city and the state. That might not be the worst of it.

The prospect of bankruptcy is frightening enough that most distressed cities try mightily to avoid it.

Since Congress created what is now Chapter 9 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in 1937 to allow political subdivisions of states (but not states themselves) to file for bankruptcy protection, relatively few have done so.

There have been only 673 filings under Chapter 9, fewer than nine a year, and most of those were special districts school, utility or sewer districts not cities or towns, said James Spiotto, a Chicago lawyer and bankruptcy specialist, and co-author of Municipalities in Distress: How States and Investors Deal with Local Government Financial Emergencies.

Keith M. Phaneuf / CTMirror.org

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin and Corporation Counsel Howard Rifkin

Since 1980 only 54 counties, cities or towns have filed for Chapter 9 protection, and more than a third of those filings were withdrawn or dismissed. Nonetheless, some highly publicized municipal bankruptcy proceedings have gone forward in the past decade, the best known of which include Detroit; Vallejo, Stockton and San Bernardino, Cal.; Jefferson County, Ala.; and in New England, Central Falls, R.I.

These communities were out of options. The trend in Connecticut and across the country has been for states to intervene and help distressed communities right themselves (a couple of states, Georgia, for one, dont allow their towns to file for Chapter 9 protection).

State intervention is almost always a better option, said Spiotto in a telephone interview. Here are some reasons why:

If a city is willing to endure this array of unpleasantries, it can have its debts reduced to a sustainable level and get a new start.Vallejo slogged through bankruptcy with severe cuts in public safety and reductions in home values, among other challenges. But in the end, Acting City Manager Phil Batchelor told an NPR interview in 2012 that the experience has been good. We were able to save probably in excess of $30 million, but we had legal bills of over $12 million.

Detroit, whose $18 billion municipal bankruptcy in 2013 was the largest in U.S. history, has seen new investment in downtown and some neighborhoods some are calling it a comeback city though other neighborhoods are still abandoned and forlorn. The Motor City is recovering, but not recovered, said Spiotto.

University of Connecticut

A rendering of the UConn Hartford campus nearing completion downtown. The new campus will add vitality downtown, but it also will be exempt from city property taxes.

Central Falls, in the final year of its five-year recovery plan, has stabilized its finances, gotten its credit rating upgraded and begun a number of economic development initiatives, said Wilder Arboleda, the citys business outreach and public relations coordinator.

So although bankruptcy isnt quite a death knell, the more common response to a city in distress is fiscal and technical assistance from the state, along with a period of state oversight.Some states, such as Pennsylvania and North Carolina, have boards that regularly monitor the finances of their cities, to be able to intervene before troubles reach the crisis stage.

Gov. Dannel Malloy has proposed such an oversight board for Connecticut, which legislators are still considering.Such a board probably would have intervened in Hartford sooner than 2017; the city has been struggling for several years, selling assets and repackaging debt to balance its budget.

To date, Connecticut has responded ad hoc and usually late in the game when one of its municipalities has foundered on fiscal shoals. In the last three decades, the state has stepped in to oversee the finances of Bridgeport, Waterbury, West Haven and Jewett City, a borough of Griswold.

Bridgeport actually filed for bankruptcy in 1991, but its petition was rejected when the city could not prove it was insolvent, one of several requirements for bankruptcy approval.

State officials opposed Bridgeports petition, not wanting to see the states largest city go bankrupt, then offered help buying a park and a zoo to get the city through the crisis. In 1994 the General Assembly passed a law requiring the governors written approval before a municipality can file for bankruptcy. Gov. Malloy has said he hopes Hartford can avoid bankruptcy.

At this point it looks like there will be another ad hoc intervention. The legislature is working on a solution for Hartford, looking at a myriad of options, said House Democratic majority leader Matthew Ritter. All would include strings, some level of state oversight.

But its not clear that this approach will solve the real problem.

Bankruptcy or state receivership is the symptom of a larger problem that being whatever it was that caused the insolvency. Cities get into fiscal jams for a variety of reasons: mismanagement, a spectacularly poor infrastructure investment, loss of a major employer, unsustainable union contracts, corruption or a slowly declining tax base.

Bankruptcy can buy time, lower debt and protect the city from lawsuits, but it doesnt solve the underlying problem. Just because you go into Chapter 9 doesnt mean you have more revenue, said Spiotto.

Ideally, bankruptcy or receivership will result in a long-term fiscal plan that will align spending with revenues, and a plan to address the problem that put the city in the hole.

Hartford has awarded generous union contracts in the past a good number of police officers have retired with pensions that are higher that their working salaries and made some questionable investments (a baseball stadium that was finally built and a soccer stadium that wasnt) in recent years, but it has had nowhere near the mismanagement that plagued Bridgeport or Waterbury before those cities submitted to state oversight.

The citys fundamental problem is that it doesnt have enough taxable property to support itself.Connecticut is heavily reliant on the property tax; it is virtually the only way municipalities can raise revenue.

Hartford occupies only 18 square miles, and more than half of its property is off the taxable grand list hospitals, colleges, government buildings, etc. The city has far and away the highest tax rate for commercial property in the state, 74.29 mills, and Mayor Bronin is loathe to raise it.

Lack of an adequate tax base is a characteristic of several distressed cities. Central Falls, for example, has 19,000 people on an astoundingly small 1.2 square miles. One of the efforts to revive the city has been a task force aimed at getting foreclosed properties back on the tax rolls, said principal planner Trey Scott.

With less taxable property than some of its suburbs, but with the bills for many of its regions social ills, Hartford can only raise about half the money it spends, and must rely heavily on state assistance.

Bronin said he has cut 100 jobs and $20 million from the budget, but still has fixed costs pensions, health care and debt service that are rising. He said the city is being run efficiently, and he would welcome someone looking over his shoulder.

An oversight panel might give the city some leverage with its unions one of which voted down a contract last month that would have saved the city $4 million over six years. But though union concessions are probably essential to gaining more state help, they wont by themselves balance the budget.

A one-time bailout wont work either; the city needs a revenue source for a period of years to meet rising debt and pension obligations. The legislature could provide ongoing help by adding to the sales tax, or, as Bronin noted in his budget message, by fully funding state reimbursements for nontaxable property, known as payments-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, a program that has been chronically underfunded for decades. Fully funding PILOT would provide Hartford with enough money an estimated $50 million a year to stabilize its budget.

As Hartford officials are well aware, it is not a good time to ask. The state faces a daunting deficit of more than $5 billion over the next two years. Lawmakers have gone into special session to work on the budget, and are not expected to have a solution for Hartford until the state budget is completed.

Though it will be challenging to find more money for Hartford, Bronin argues that it is essential that the state create more economic and social vibrancy in its major cities, making them a draw for bright young people, because thats what businesses are looking for today. The departure of GE from its suburban Fairfield campus to Boston and the impending departure of Aetnas headquarters from Hartford would appear to support his argument.

Some distressed cities across the country have gotten back on the road to prosperity, via sound economic planning. Pittsburgh, for example, invested in medicine and technology, along with arts, infrastructure and riverfront activity, which have helped the city recover from the crushing loss of the steel industry in the latter half of the last century.

Hartford has a number of initiatives underway downtown housing, a new UConn branch, bus and train transit, plus a longstanding riverfront revival program that should help its economic growth. It is one of four cities awarded a share of $30 million by CTNext to create high-tech innovation hubs.

It just needs, somehow, to bridge the budget gap.

This is not a drill. Hartford may once have been the richest little city in the country a comment attributed to the renowned novelist Henry James but it is no longer.

The Jan. 9 city council agenda had a proposed resolution urging the city to buy a re-usable tree for Christmas presentation and cease purchasing poinsettias and/or other plants to decorate city hall until the city is financially able to do so.

It has come to that.

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For Hartford, bankruptcy not an easy way out - The CT Mirror

Retailer BCBG Unveils Going-Concern Bankruptcy Sales Wall Street Journal (subscription) Women's clothing retailer BCBG Max Azria Group LLC announced bankruptcy deals worth $165 million to sell off its core businesses, which would live on as a going concern. Marty Staff, BCBG's interim acting chief executive officer, said the proposed ...

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Retailer BCBG Unveils Going-Concern Bankruptcy Sales - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court confirmed Abengoa Bioenergy US Holdings Third Amended Joint Plans of Liquidation.

As previously reported, The Plan as currently proposed, including the proposed treatment of the MRA Guarantee Claims, is premised on substantive consolidation and provides Bioenergy General Unsecured Creditors with a substantially higher recovery than they could otherwise expect to receive. The most important consideration for the Holders of the MRA Guarantee Claims was that their entitlement to the $32.5 million.

In addition, The proposed settlement allows the Plan Proponents to avoid costly, time consuming, and potentially uncertain litigation, whereby if unsuccessful certain creditors would receive no recovery in 2017 and little, if any recovery in 2018, or even later if the parties engage in protracted litigation. As reflected in the Liquidation Analysiswithout the proposed settlement of the MRA Guarantee Claims, most of the available proceeds for distribution to Holders of Bioenergy General Unsecured Claims would have been distributed to the Holders of MRA Guarantee Claims, leaving Holders of Bioenergy General Unsecured Claims with a small fraction of their projected recovery under the Plan as proposed.

The order states, Pursuant to section 1123 of the Bankruptcy Code and Bankruptcy Rule 9019, the Cofides Settlement is an integrated compromise and settlement of numerous issues and disputes designed to achieve a beneficial and efficient resolution of these Chapter 11 Cases for all parties in interest. The Court finds that the relief sought in the Cofides Settlement Motion is an exercise of sound business judgment, and is in the best interests of the Debtors, the Debtors estates, creditors, and all parties in interest, and that the legal and factual bases set forth in the Cofides Settlement Motion establish just cause for the relief granted herein, and that the Cofides Settlement Motion satisfies rules 2002 and 9019 of the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure.

This renewable energy plant operator filed for Chapter 11 protection on February 24, 2016, listing $648 million in pre-petition assets.

Read more Abengoa bankruptcy news.

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Abengoa Bankruptcy Liquidation Plan Confirmed - Bankrupt Company News (press release) (blog)

The owner of the Joe's Crab Shack casual dining chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday amid falling sales, and plans to sell the company for at least $50 million to a private equity firm, according to a court filing.

Ignite Restaurant, which also owns the Brick House Tavern + Tap chain, has been closing weaker locations and began to pursue a sale of the business last year, according to court documents.

However, as operations continued to worsen through early 2017, interested bidders withdrew their proposals and Ignite began to consider bankruptcy, according to a court filing by Jonathan Tibus, the company's acting chief executive officer.

Ignite filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston a proposal to sell its assets to Kelly Investment Group, a private equity firm. Other interested buyers will be invited to challenge the Kelly bid at a court-supervised auction, according to court documents.

A spokesman for Ignite did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Owner of Joe's Crab Shack chain files for bankruptcy - CNBC

Creditors of a Tinley Park real estate brokerage who claim they are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars are trying to force the firm into bankruptcy.

Oak Park Avenue Realty Ltd. is an affiliate of Mack Industries, also based in Tinley Park, which filed for Chapter 11 restructuring in late March. Oak Park Avenue wasn't included in that bankruptcy filing.

Mack Industries built its business purchasing homes that had been foreclosed on, fixed them up and then found renters for them. Homes were also sold to investors, and Mack in turn would guarantee them a steady income stream by finding renters.

Owners of the homes are owed at least $433,000 by Oak Park in unpaid rents and security deposits collected by the firm from renters, according attorney Brian Jackiw, who is representing them in the petition, filed May 31, seeking involuntary Chapter 11 for the company.

Locally, one creditor, from Orland Park, is owed $153,000, and other property owners are from Frankfort and New Lenox as well as states, including California, Colorado and Virginia. Jackiw said he is being contacted by other property owners who may join the case.

A call left for Oak Park seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Forcing the company into bankruptcy could result in assets being identified that could be sold off to repay Oak Park's creditors, Jackiw said.

He said the investors he so far represents own, collectively, about 125 properties, mainly single-family homes.

Are the amounts as far as unpaid rents owed cover a specific time period?

Jackiw said some of the creditors are owed two months' rent and some are owed for four months. He said Oak Park would generally send property owners monthly account statements showing information, such as how much rent was collected and what management fees were charged by the company, but that, in most instances, Oak Park stopped sending out those reports about two months ago.

In connection with Mack Industries' bankruptcy, allegations of fraudulent financial transactions have been aired against Mack and its founder and chief executive, James K. "Mack" McClelland, who is an owner of Oak Park Avenue Realty.

American Residential Leasing, the largest unsecured creditor in the case, had asked the court to name a receiver a request since approved by the judge to oversee Mack's operations, alleging there have been "several million dollars' worth of potentially fraudulent" fund transfers and distributions among Mack insiders and affiliated companies.

Separately, lender Colony American Finance sued McClelland individually, alleging he owes more than $19 million to the company for defaulting on a December 2015 loan agreement, the proceeds of which were used to buy and rehab properties. In its complaint, filed just weeks after Mack Industries' Chapter 11 filing, Colony American states $9.8 million was advanced to McClelland for rehab work and alleges that some of that money was "misappropriated, misapplied and converted" for other uses.

The trustee in the Mack bankruptcy case recently won court approval to hire a forensic accountant who spent years as an FBI special agent investigating money laundering and fraud schemes.

In explaining in a court filing the need to bring on someone with specialized skills, the trustee noted a "complex history of opaque financial and business dealings" among Mack, its numerous subsidiaries and company principals.

mnolan@tribpub.com

Twitter @mnolan_J

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Creditors seek to force bankruptcy of Tinley Park firm - Chicago Tribune

Saying her husband, Kent Lindemuth, had interfered with attempts to sell properties to help resolve the Lindemuth bankruptcy case, Vikki Lindemuth supports a federal judges appointment of a trustee to direct his part of the couples bankruptcy.

Appointment of a Chapter 11 trustee to take control of Kent Lindemuths interests will stop Kent from disrupting the debtors business operations, Vikki Lindemuth said in a response to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Bergers preference to appoint the trustee.

Berger gave the parties 20 days to respond to the plan to appoint a trustee. He issued the decision May 25 rather than ordering liquidation to repay debts.

Berger also has issued an order granting Vikki Lindemuths motion to sever the couples joint bankruptcy case. The Lindemuths are in the middle of a divorce.

Kent Lindemuth hasnt responded to the judges plan to appoint a trustee for him. His wife, however, said appointing a trustee on his behalf will restore and preserve the confidence of the debtors creditors, vendors, lessees, potential lessees and others that the reorganized debtors will be able to meet their continuing obligations under their respective plans.

As part of the Lindemuths bankruptcy reorganization plan, James B. Lloyd, who has power of attorney, has managed the debtors businesses based on the bankruptcy reorganization plans.

But Kent Lindemuth has progressively undermined Lloyds authority by representing to the debtors vendors, lessees, potential lessees, and others that he is in control of the debtors businesses and properties, Vikki Lindemuth wrote in support of appointing a trustee.

Vikki Lindemuth contends six automotive and moving and storage businesses owned by Kent Lindemuth havent paid all the rent owed on the Lindemuth property they occupy ostensibly because they didnt have sufficient income. The rent shortfalls have caused the debtors to default on some real estate taxes, Vikki Lindemuth said.

However, income from two of the moving and storage businesses was more than enough to make their rent payments, Vikki Lindemuth said.

She also contended Kent Lindemuth has actively interfered with Lloyds attempts to market and sell some properties to reduce past taxes owed, debt and preserve the debtors remaining assets.

Kent Lindemuths pending federal criminal charges have been widely publicized, and have caused great consternation among the debtors creditors, vendors, lessees, potential lessees, and everyone else who is or may become involved with the debtors business operations, Vikki Lindemuth wrote.

Some current lessees are questioning whether to extend their leases, and the Lindemuths have lost opportunities to lease some property, Vikki Lindemuth said.

Berger scheduled June 22 as the date he would appoint a Chapter 11 supervisory trustee for Kent Lindemuth.

Kent Lindemuth is charged with 107 counts of bankruptcy fraud, six counts of money laundering, two counts of receipt of firearms, and one count each of perjury and receipt of ammunition.

Lindemuth, 65, is scheduled to face trial beginning Sept. 12 before U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree in Topeka.

Contact reporter Steve Fry at (785) 295-1206 or @TCJCourtsNCrime on Twitter.

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Vikki Lindemuth favors appointment of trustee to handle husband's bankruptcy - Topeka Capital Journal

The growth of home solar has been unstoppable in recent years. According to the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA), solar sales nearly doubled in 2016, with more than 14 GW installed. For many, the projections for stellar growth in rooftop solar and other sectors of the industry seemed unshakable.

And nothing speaks more to that growth than the cost of home solar installations. In 2016, the cost related to those rooftop gems dropped 29 percent, says SEIA, which notes that a drop in hardware sticker prices helped lead the way to cheaper prices overall.

But while the cost of solar has been plummeting, there have been troubling indications for several years now that the home solar sector may not be as resilient as say, the community sector. Since 2011, more than 100 solar-related companies have shut their doors, either restructuring, selling or going out of business altogether.

Plus, a running list on GreenTechMedia from 2015 indicates that the turnover is by no means limited to solar installers. Parts manufacturers face their own challenges, with falling prices impacting the industry across the board and industry advances making it hard for others to keep up. Consumers however, notice it most when the installer they have contracted with doesnt turn up to finish the installation and wont answer the phone.

Still, it was the most recent spate of failed solar installers that made us ask: Is the problem a vast divide between what companies are promising consumers and what (they find later) it costs to run the business? Is it profit projections vs. profit reality? Or is it an indication that home solar is really unsustainable?

To get a sense of the problem, TriplePundit delved into the history of some of the most recent and largest installers that have called it quits. We bent an ear to what they said when they sent out their press announcements and took a look at what solar analysts feel is really the issue. Lastly, we took a speculative look at one company that earlier this year was struggling, but felt it had positive momentum to overcome until it went off the radar altogether.

Most of the solar installers that have unfortunately landed on the list of company closures have been forthright, letting their customers know that there would be contract changes on the horizon, whether it meant an outright sale, a bankruptcy or a shifting of corporate priorities.

But according to Mel Burns, executive director of energy concierge services at MyDomino, thats not the case with American Solar Direct, which gained a great reputation after it burst on the scene in 2009 and disappeared earlier this year without a whisper. MyDomino, based in Oakland, networks with consumers to help them with their clean energy concerns.

In 2014 they were like gangbusters. They were one of the fastest growing solar companies and now, poof! theyre gone, said Burns. They really [went] off of the radar very quickly and without notice.

And it was that lack of heads-up and follow-up that caught the attention of two solar customers, whose well-honed experience in research told them that something was amiss when their new solar installer not only didnt finish the job, but didnt file the paperwork to get paid by the loan company. Paul SanGiorgio is a physicist [his wife, Jen Boynton is the editor-in-chief of TriplePundit.]

I totally understand if they are going out of business that they dont really care about my side paneling or fixing the electrical panel, said SanGiorgio, but it just seems totally bizarre that they have shown zero interest in actually getting paid for the work that they did.

According to SanGiorgio, the couple reached out to MyDomino last September when they decided they wanted to install solar panels on their home. At their request, MyDomino sent a list of companies that had been screened and had been operating in the SanGiorgios geographic area. The SanGiorgios reviewed the choices and eventually settled on American Solar Direct. [American Solar Direct] sent some people out to look at our roof and make sure our roof was OK. They gave us the final OK sometime in October or November. So we signed the contract and they started doing the work.

But the couple soon found that the process wasnt going to be as straight-forward as it looked. SanGiorgio said the construction crew responsible for upgrading the electric box and installing the panels would turn up without the right contractor to do the work, with the wrong equipment, or with no equipment at all. In January, some three months after signing the contract, the installers announced the job was ready to be approved by a local inspector.

Thats when the SanGiorgios discovered that in order to install a new, higher grade electric panel, the installers had torn off some of the siding on their house presumably just before the record winter storms had set in, leaving the insulation exposed to rain and erratic temperatures. According to the city inspector, they had also failed to waterproof one of the electricity boxes, a requirement before the city would agree to OK the work.

SanGiorgio said the representative from American Solar Direct who was present at the inspection promised that if the inspector would sign off on the job, he would run over to Home Depot and buy a tube of calk and come right back. The inspector accepted the promise and signed off on the new solar panel array.

And thats the last time I ever saw anyone from American Solar Direct, said SanGiorgio.

According to both SanGiorgio and Burns, it was also the last time either of them heard from the company.

Burns said her first solid indication that American Solar Direct may have gone under was a phone call from Sighten, a solar quoting platform that is an essential component to large-scale solar installations. Sighten had called to let her know that the company seemed to have disappeared from the network and was no longer using their services.

Thats a telling sign, said Burns. They had been a large-volume player. Burns said it would have been virtually impossible for the company to operate without using the quoting platform.

Since our interviews with SanGiorgio and Burns, TriplePundit has learned that American Solar Direct has filed bankruptcy, adding its name more officially to those companies that couldnt compete with an aggressive market climate. According to its Chapter 7 filing, the company owed between $10 million and $50 million and by the time it called quits on June 2 had less than $60,000 in assets.

That kind of disparity between liabilities and assets is a familiar scene these days that has been played out repeatedly over the home solar landscape, where both new and seasoned solar companies, driven by the demand to corner the market and as Burns puts it, reach the holy grail of grid parity compete with unsustainably low prices and promises of record-speed installations.

The names of failed home solar companies these days read like a whos who of solar fame: Sungevity, Solyndra, SunEdison, Verengo, HelioPower, One Roof and Vivint, some of which were forced into bankruptcy, and some of which had the better fortune to be acquired by hopeful companies, spell a troubling picture for an industry that has garnered the interest of investors and the excitement of homeowners who see affordable payments as a way to beat the increasing costs of the electricity grid.

Comments left on Glassdoor by Sungevity employees are as telling as the reasons that other companies have given for their downfall. According to Sungevity employees, cash management procedures and lack of foresight contributed to why a successful, name-brand solar company ended up being sold off for assets. The same story could be heard from its competitors like mega-giant SunEdison, which later found itself under investigation for overstating its worth.

But from Burns point of view the issue is even simpler. It has to do with managing how much you charge against how much you really need to pay your overhead.

Nine years ago, [the cost of solar] was roughly $8 or $9 a watt, explained Burns, who began made her career in clean energy working for Sungevity when if first launched. Today that cost is around $3 to $4 a watt. Thats a 60 percent drop. Thats wonderful.Thats really triggered the solar explosion and made it possible for a lot of people to get solar [for whom] that was never possible before.

Except the overhead hasnt shrunk or kept pace, said Burns. That new, basement floor price must still pay for hard costs solar panels, inverters, etc. and soft costs labor, installation, design and a staggering list of in-house expenditures, government taxes and permits that now all must be met with lower revenue.

Can a 60 percent drop in price still pay for all those things?, Burns asked.

As far as MyDomino is concerned, Burns said, the closure of American Solar Direct is a wake-up call for an industry that fervently believes in clean energy, but also relies on its partners to be transparent. She said she is taking the time to study and learn as much as she can about what caused American Solar Direct and others to become insolvent.

I still believe in residential solar, Burns reassured adamantly. It is still going to do well. It is still going to have great growth. But it is in a period of transition. And that transition may entail a few more years of growing pains.

As to the SanGiorgios, they are still waiting for American Solar Direct or someone in its stead to bill their loan company. SanGiorgio said the loan company wont start the payments until they receive a bill from the installer, which so far has been unreachable.

As far as I can tell, it has basically stopped functioning, said SanGiorgio, who echoed Burns observation that the companys bidding price and lack of operational management may have had a role to play in the companys fate, like so many before it.

I dont know why, but they [were] not bidding well and they [were] not organizing their projects well and this is the end result: They are going out of business.

Flickr images: brian kusler; Russell Neches; Wayne National Forest.

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Breaking: American Solar Direct Files for Bankruptcy - Triple Pundit (registration) (blog)