Misery Index: Week of March 20, 2017

Florida Councilwoman’s Family Barbecue Business Up in Smoke

Although Jacksonville, Fla., Councilwoman Katrina Brown is not an owner of KJB Specialties, which is doing business as Jerome Brown Barbecue & Wings, Ms. Brown is listed as a co-debtor in the chapter 11 petition signed on March 20 by the president, her mother Joann M. Brown. According to the petition filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Fla., of $3.2 million that’s listed under liabilities, some $2.7 million is owed to BizCapital Bidco LLC, which reportedly loaned money to the company in November 2011 before the younger Ms. Brown was elected to the city council in 2015. The bankruptcy comes on the heels of a suit filed by the city of Jacksonville in January to recover a $210,000 grant to Cowealth, another company co-owned by the younger Ms. Brown, which is also listed as a KJB Specialties co-debtor in the court documents.

SquareTwo Sells Its Debt Empire to Resurgent

SquareTwo Financial Services Corporation and 17 related entities filed for chapter 11 protection on March 19 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of N.Y. Resurgent Holdings will acquire all of SquareTwo’s portfolio of assets. The company reports that it will close its U.S. operations by the end of 2017. According to affiliate CACH’s bankruptcy petition, associated bankruptcy filings include Collect America of Canada, Healthcare Funding Solutions, Metropolitan Legal Administration Services, CACV of Colorado, Orsa, CACV of New Jersey, Preferred Credit Resources, ReFinance America, Candeo and Collect Air. “Unfortunately, changes in the regulatory and business environment over the last several years have had a significant economic impact on the company,” said J.B. Richardson, Jr., chief operating officer with SquareTwo in a statement.

Read the declaration of J.B. Richardson, Jr.

Renowned Florida Ophthalmologist Develops Financial Eyesore

Brevard Surgery Center, Inc. is disputing some $6 million owed to SummitBridge National Investments, according to chapter 11 documents filed on March 21 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Stock in the company is 100% owned by President Dr. Rafael Trespalacios, a board-certified ophthalmologist who, in August 2014, was named among the best doctors in the field of cataract and LASIK surgery in Spacecoast Living magazine. Located in the same Apollo Boulevard building in Melbourne, Fla., affiliates Brevard Eye Center, Inc and THMIH, Inc. also filed on Tuesday.

Read the Affidavit.

Pangean Energy Bakken Shale 1H files chapter 7 after securities violations allegations

Pangean Energy Bakken Shale 1H, LLC filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy in Texas Northern Bankruptcy Court on March 19.  The Bedford, Texas-based oil and gas development company’s legal woes started at least as far back as 2013, some three years after announcing a $28,800,000.00 joint venture with PetroTech Oil and Gas Inc. Pangean Energy Bakken Shale 1H along with Pangean Energy were ordered by Oklahoma’s securities administrator Irving Faught to cease and desist from employing unregistered agents to transact business on their behalf in Oklahoma.

Pangean Energy and its CEO Bart Sweazea had already been charged with securities violations in the state of Washington on July 13, 2013, and by Sept. 2013 had agreed to pay an administrative fine of $10,000 and investigative costs of $2,000.

In December 2003, Mr. Sweazea filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of Texas as an individual. Mr. Sweazea was the subject of a Pennsylvania Securities Commission Summary Order to Cease and Desist in 1999 after the Commission determined that Mr. Sweazea had cold-called at least one Pennsylvania resident and offered to sell a fractional undivided working interest in a Texas drilling project.

Massachusetts Rides the Internet Highway to Bankruptcy

With up to $1 million in assets and $50 million in liabilities, KCST USA filed for chapter 11 protection Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the District of Mass. Central and Western Division. The company operates the state’s internet connection. The petition was signed by President Terrence Fergus and an expedited motion was subsequently filed requesting authorization from Judge Elizabeth Katz to secure financing with Axia Net Media Corporation. A hearing is set for March 24.