IFC Credit $150 Million Bankruptcy
by Christopher Menkin

It is estimated there are over $150 million in claims involved in the IFC Credit, Morton Grove, Illinois voluntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy filed in Cook County, Northern District Judicial Court, Illinois on July 27, 2009. Banks to date are in it for $92 million listed, as well as unpaid NorVergence lessees from the FTC settlement for $1.95 million, and even Marcus Davin, Benchmark Financial Group, for the sale of Blue Dot, owed about $150,000, Askounis & Darcy, PC, $167,588 for NorVergence lease work (defenses case reduced by $8,081) and American Leasing Insurance $13,103.78 in 31-60 days and $16,482 in 30 days (there goes the insurance on the leases!) Listed also are LSM Security Deposits totaling $724,013 due in the next five years payable to lessees, and many others as well as 193 vendors owed a total of $3.3 million.

Certainly there are other creditors to file and more to the story, especially since Coactive Capital claims fraud was committed by the two previous officers Rudy Trebels, CLP, and Marc Langs, CFO, as individuals. Perhaps others will make similar claims as the case unravels in bankruptcy court.

At one point, the net worth of IFC Credit was reported to be $9 million, but it was not disclosed here. Today it appears quite up-side down. The company was basically a middle-market broker company, which its founder Rudy Trebels, CLP, started out as, and is reportedly back at it today.

It also appears Len Ludwig, former CEO of First Portland Corporation dba First Corp. was seeking to take over, as he and his partner Arthur Levinson were partially secured, although his own company VenCore in Portland, Oregon, no longer seems to be active, so the staff would have to come from somewhere as most were gone the end of June (calls to VenCore for several days only found a voice message recorder). Leasing News was also told by a reliable source the great majority of employees were let go some time ago as the venture leasing market dried up.

As of July 27, all employees are going at IFC, including Pioneer Capital Corporation President John Boettigheimer. It appears that while it is assumed Pioneer was a separate corporation, it is part of this bankruptcy, but its corporation has not filed bankruptcy. Salary and other costs of administration checks were written out of Morton Grove. Pioneer was primarily treated as a marketing operation that did mail out commissions and vendor payments, but first received from Morton Grove. Leasing News is aware since last December its president fought to get out notices that leases were not being funded by Pioneer several times, but had to wait for clearance from Morton Grove, Illinois. He also would return brokers advance rentals and signed contracts knowing they would not be funded.

William Purcell signed the IFC Credit bankruptcy as president. It is not known if he is the same William Purcell who was President and Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Bancorp Equipment Finance, then became Chief Operating Officer at Aequitas Capital Management. He appears to have gotten involved with IFC at the request of Len Ludwig when Rudy Trebels, CLP, was fired along with Marc Langs.

IFC Bank Line Report:
West Suburban Bank, Lombard, Il. $15 million
Ben Franklin Bank of Illinois, Arlington Heights, IL $1 million
PPF Bank and Trust (no amount)
First National Bank McHenry, Richmond, IL $1 million
DZ Bank, New York, NY $75 million
Northside Community Bank, Niles, Il $2 million
First Chicago Bank and Trust, Chicago, IL $10 million
George Washington Savings Bank, Oakland Park (residual loans)
Albany Bank, Chicago, Il (no amount)
American Bank & Trust, Davenport, IA (no amount)
Lakeside Bank, Chicago, IL (no amount)
Parkway Bank, Harwood Heights, IL (no amount)
Signature Bank, Chicago $500,000
total: $92 million

Discount Sources: Portfolio
Coactive Capital Partners, Horsham, PA
Court Square/ Manufactures and Traders Trust
Lakeland Bank
USBC, Marshall, MN
Susequenna/Patriot, Pottsdown, PA
Commercial National Bank, Fullerton, Calif.
LEAF Financial, Philadelphia, PA

These companies are noted elsewhere in the filings on money owed, payments made such as Susquehanna where wire transfers were made of $55,000 a month and IFC stopped paying in June. There are court cases lost where payments were being paid, such as S.O.S. in Texas, remember $11,000 was owed and this is where the John Escot, CLP, holdback came up and IFC appealed it. Not counting the attorney fees, Leasing News estimated the cost to be over $125,000, perhaps $140,000 with attorney fees and court costs. The BK filing here proves this was a correct observation. IFC paid one payment $10,000 and S.O.S. was owed $100,000 payable at $15,000 a month, then $16,000 and final of $16,500 (not paid).

IFC Credit Bankruptcy Meeting of Creditors with 341(a) to be held on 09/02/2009 at 12:30 PM at 219 South Dearborn, Office of the U.S. Trustee, 8th Floor, Room 800, Chicago, Illinois 60604.

Copy of Filing (72 pages/2.2mb download)
http://leasingnews.org/PDF/IFC%20BK%20filing.pdf

U.S. Bankruptcy Court
Northern District of Illinois (Chicago)
Bankruptcy Petition #: 09-27094

Assigned to: Jacqueline P. Cox
Chapter 7
Voluntary
No asset

Date filed: 07/27/2009

U.S.Trustee
David P Leibowitz, ESQ
Leibowitz Law Center
420 Clayton Street
Waukegan, IL 60085-4232
847-249-9100

U.S. Trustee
William T Neary
Office of the U.S. Trustee, Region 11
219 S Dearborn St
Room 873
Chicago, IL 60604
312-886-5785

IFC represented by: Cindy Johnson Johnson & Newby, LLC 39 S. LaSalle Street Suite 820 Chicago, IL 60603 312 345-1306 Ext. 101 Email: cjohnson@...