Bankruptcy trustee emerges in Pigeon King collapse
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
by BETTER FARMING STAFF
Important Note: © Copyright AgMedia Inc. Copyright for this article like all material on this website belongs to AgMedia Inc. Links to this site are welcome but this material may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any other publication or on any website.
Susan Taves, a spokesperson with BDO Dunwoody Limited’s Kitchener office confirmed today that Arlan Galbraith handed over the company this morning. BDO will act as PKI’s bankruptcy trustee.
Few assets remain
Taves says the company’s listed debt is $23 million with listed assets amounting to about $46,000. Assets include two vehicles, office furniture and “a bit of cash in the bank.” BDO Dunwoody will be publishing bankruptcy documents including a statement of affairs on its website (www.bdo.ca/pigeonking). Taves says the goal is to have it published by Thursday noon. Currently the site confirms that PKI has voluntarily filed for bankruptcy.
Is Galbraith off the hook?
Galbraith has not filed for personal bankruptcy and Taves says she doesn’t know if he has plans to do so. “He’s aware that some of the creditors, their contracts are with him personally,” she says. “They’re not sort of frozen in the bankruptcy of Pigeon King.” What happens with those creditors “I guess might affect his next step – I don’t know.”
She explains Galbraith’s Waterloo home, up for sale at a listed price of $389,000, is not among the assets listed because it is in his personal name. Neither is a property near
Cochrane, Ontario, where Galbraith had once proposed to establish a plant to process the birds, for the same reason.
Taves says it is now her company’s job to review PKI’s affairs, including some recent banking transactions to make a comment on “where funds were used,” and to recover assets of value to convert to cash to pay out to creditors. “It’s going to be a few weeks before we get all the records and we go through all the banking transactions,” she says.
Birds appear to be worthless
As PKI’s trustee, BDO Dunwoody has no ownership or interest in the birds. “There seems to be no value to them,” Taves says, emphasizing the BDO won’t come back on the farmer “saying we want them.”
She urges farmers who are concerned about what to do with the birds to contact the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) for assistance at 1-888-668-7722. She confirmed the SPCA conducted a search at PKI’s former officers last week and has obtained records for the location of the birds and contract holders.
For issues related allegations of criminal activity, fraud or misappropriation of funds, she recommends people contact the Waterloo Regional Police Service’s fraud squad (519-653-7700 4756 or 519-653-4757). “We don’t investigate that.”
Taves notes that as a trustee, her company can make a request for further review and investigation to the federal Superintendent of Bankruptcy “if we believe there’s questionable activity.” BDO has not made such a request concerning PKI to date, she says.
Taves says her company plans to issue a notice notifying all of those holding PKI contracts by next week. The notice will be sent to 400 contract holders in Canada and 600 in the United States.
She notes that those who have signed contracts with Galbraith personally– his company was not formally incorporated until 2007 – are not PKI creditors. “Technically their claim is against Arlan Galbraith,” she says. Nevertheless, they will also be notified of the situation.
No assets in Benn Contracting
Those holding contracts under Benn Contracting are being pooled with those listed as Pigeon King contract holders, she adds. “We understand there were no other assets in Benn Contracting and there was no separate bank account of any balance so those two we did consolidate together.”
So although there has been no formal bankruptcy of that corporation, “it is not active, it is dormant and the creditor list we’ve got we believe included both (PKI and Benn Contracting contract holders).”
Taves says she was not familiar with Arlan Galbraith Financial, another investment venture promoted by Galbraith that promised investors 18 per cent interest on their money. “I don’t know that name.”
A meeting of creditors will be held in the last week of July but the exact date and location have yet to be confirmed, she says. “At this point we don’t expect to have a lot of money to pay to the creditors,” she says.
Although the media and investors have reported difficulties finding the pigeon king Taves says to date she has had no problems contacting Galbraith. “He has responsibilities with the bankruptcy of the corporation to assist us if there’s anything we need so he needs to be available.”
However, she declines from sharing his contact information. “I’m not really sure I can give that out,” she says. BF
Important Note: © Copyright AgMedia Inc. Copyright for this article like all material on this website belongs to AgMedia Inc. Links to this site are welcome but this material may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any other publication or on any website.