Jones & Associates We Fight Bankruptcy Clawbacks
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January 29, 2018, Delaware – An Italian restaurant chain, Macaroni Grill’s unsecured creditors sought permission and authority from the Court late last month to prosecute and settle claims against Bank of Colorado.
According to the complaint filed in Judge Mary F. Walrath’s court, the Committee sought to avoid new liens granted by certain of the debtors in previously unencumbered assets only one month before the bankruptcy. The primary assets of these debtors consisted of valuable liquor licenses that are either not permitted to be encumbered under applicable state law or were not properly perfected under state law, and therefore should not be encumbered by the purported prepetition lien of Bank of Colorado.
The unsecured creditors urged in its complaint that the debtors received about $8.5 million in new financing from Bank of Colorado and Riesen Funding LLC, an entity controlled by the debtors’ equity owner, Dean Riesen.
The complaint alleged that rather than satisfying the claims of unsecured creditors with this additional liquidity, the Debtors pursued an out of court restructuring designed to safeguard the claims of BOC and preserve Riesen’s equity interests. Thus, the committee urged the court to let it pursue the claims against debtors and potentially enhance the group’s recovery by $8 million.