Monday, January 17, 2022, 1:07 pm News Flash Archive

As first reported by The Taxpayers Channel, Express Grain has petitioned the court to approve a bidding process to sell all its assets.

But particularly, it has also separately petitioned the bankruptcy court to authorize the sale of 15 brand new golf carts. See our reporting here: Express Grain seeks to sell all its assets, including 15 golf carts

EG's attorney Craig Geno informed the court that the 15 golf carts "were ordered and purchased before the [bankruptcy] petition was filed and have been fully paid for..." (see links in the above article).

But the problem is, the carts weren't paid for before the bankruptcy was filed, which leaves the question: how did these 15 golf carts get paid for, when other creditors are not and cannot be paid at this time?

After EG filed for bankruptcy, it was required to disclose all its assets, and in that filing, it listed ownership of 27 golf carts. See page 34 here: EG Declaration of Assets

It is not clear whether the 15 new golf carts are included in the 27 golf carts listed in the financial disclosure.

According to one person who worked for EG, the golf carts are used to ferry employees (such as electricians, mechanics, and managers) around the large plant facilities who are required to move about during their work day. These carts save time for those employees going from station to station. In addition, the carts are used to transport visitors who need to see various different areas in a short amount of time.

The 15 new golf carts were purchased from Suzhou Lexsong Electromechanical Equipment Co.,Ltd. in China. The invoice number was "LS21073002" and was dated August 10, 2021.

According to the terms of the invoice, EG was to pay 30% down as a deposit, and delivery was to be "within eight weeks" of receiving the deposit. The total price was shown as $80,381.00. The balance owed was to be paid in advance, before the shipping container was loaded. The invoice may be seen here: Invoice for 15 golf carts

But EG was also required to list all the non-payroll payments in the 90 days preceding the bankruptcy filing. These ledger payments may be seen here: 90 day ledger payment report

As can be seen on page 31, a payment was made by wire to Suzhou on August 5, 2021 on this same invoice # LS21073002 for $21,804.30.

But no additional payments are recorded in the ledger report to Suzhou or for this invoice.

Indeed, in another filing, EG claimed Suzhou as one of its pre-petition creditors, and lists $81,877.00 as the amount owed to Suzhou. See page 9 here: List of pre-petition creditors

All of this, taken together, makes it appear that the 15 new golf carts were ordered before the bankruptcy filing, and were not completely paid for until after the bankruptcy had been filed.

Which raises the question: are some pre-petition creditors being paid, while the farmers are not?

John Pittman Hey
The Taxpayers Channel

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