An Oregon man will face a possible five years in jail and a $250,000 fine after pleading guilty to two counts of bankruptcy fraud, according to the Columbian.
Donovan Lindhorst of Gresham, Oregon, was forced to file involuntary bankruptcy in 2007 after he didn’t make the necessary payments to the roofers union of which he was a member.
As a part of filing for the involuntary bankruptcy, Lindhorst hid numerous of assets, including cash, a vintage truck, gold, silver and other coins.
Officials found almost $200,000 in cash, as well as gold bullion and other valuables in a safe in Lindhorst’s house when they undertook during an inspection. The inspection – which turned up the 1928 Ford Roadster pickup – was mandated as a part of his bankruptcy agreement.
Lindhorst also failed to notify the court that he had transferred $190,000 to his son.
U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton said in a news release that “bankruptcy fraud is an assault on our judicial system. Debtors may not gain the protections of the bankruptcy courts on the one hand and then misrepresent and conceal assets from court, trustees and creditors of the bankruptcy estate on the other.”
A federal bankruptcy judge took the side of creditors recently, and will force the Tennessee payroll company Sommet into Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
A group of creditors filed an involuntary petition last month, and recently the judge in the case granted that petition. This means that Sommet will now have to liquidate its assets in order to pay off debts.
Federal authorities raided the offices of the company in July. An affidavit would later accuse Sommet managing partner of misusing clients’ money. This misuse stemmed from unpaid health insurance claims that Sommet had on the books. According to the affidavit, there were 778 such unpaid claims from 2009 and 2010, totaling around $2.1 million.
According to court papers, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee has been assigned to the company to liquidate assets and repay creditors in an orderly fashion.
In Maryland last year, bankruptcy filings rose by almost 36 percent, according to the Baltimore Sun. The increase continues the trend in rising bankruptcy filings that began with the bursting of the housing bubble and the economic recession.
The total count of bankruptcies includes both private and business bankruptcy filings.
The Maryland numbers are higher than national bankruptcy filing rates. The rate of increase across the nation for the same time period was about 20 percent.
Between June 30 of 2009 and the same date in 2010 there have been over 29,000 bankruptcy filings in Maryland. The information comes from a report filed by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
In 2007, there were 11,200 bankruptcy filings in Maryland. That number rose by 46 percent in 2008, and by over 30 percent in 2009.
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