The bankruptcy trustee for Turner Grain Merchandising has filed 15 more lawsuits this week seeking the return of $10.1 million to the estate of the bankrupt Brinkley grain buyer and seller.
From Oct. 6 through Thursday, the trustee, Randy Rice of Little Rock, has filed 38 lawsuits seeking the return of $109,950,289.
Most of that -- $98.2 million -- is being sought from Turner-related companies: Ivory Rice, Agribusiness Properties, Turner Commodities and Brinkley Truck Brokerage. The lawsuits don't indicate whether those companies have any assets.
Turner Grain Merchandising filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2014 and converted it to Chapter 7 some months later, listing assets of $13.8 million and liabilities of $24.8 million. Creditors -- most of them farmers -- have filed $39.7 million in claims for grain that Turner received and sold but never paid for.
Inspectors with the U.S. Department of Agriculture shut down the company in August 2014 when they found no grain in bins that had been certified as being full.
Any money recovered would be placed into a bankruptcy estate to benefit all creditors of Turner Grain Merchandising.
Federal bankruptcy law allows a trustee to seek the return of any payments made to an unsecured creditor within 90 days of the debtor's filing for bankruptcy, to prevent a firm nearing bankruptcy from playing favorites among whom to pay. Any company related to the debtor that receives payment within a year of the filing also can be sued for repayment.
Brinkley Truck Brokerage, a trucking company used by Turner employees to haul grain, was sued Monday for the return of $8.8 million.
Other lawsuits filed this week are: J&B Farms, Monroe County, $20,075; Travis Mears Farms Inc., Newport, $141,028; Travis Mears Farms Inc., Newport, $75,415; N & D Farms, Monroe County, $38,361; Galloway Cotton Farms, Augusta, $238,352; Calloway Planting Co., Holly Grove (Monroe County), $137,447; Keith Wilkison Farms, Brinkley, $170,914; Optimum Agriculture LLC, Jefferson County, $73,622; Prairie Gold Farms, Stuttgart, $71,957; Gregory Farm Inc., Augusta, $66,216; Cache River Valley Seed, Cash (Craighead County), $34,540; Caviness Farms II, Carlisle, $26,033; United States of America, through Commodity Credit Corp., $175,418; and Benton Farming in Monroe County, $37,203.
Several defendants in the "clawback" lawsuits are owed much more by Turner than the payments they received in the 90 days before Turner's bankruptcy filing and are among the plaintiffs in civil lawsuits against the company.
Also this week, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Phyllis Jones signed an order allowing the payment of $71,910 in fees and $5,212 for expenses to the Crossett law firm of Streetman, Meeks & Gibson, the attorney for the trustee.
Business on 10/14/2016