Northwest Territorial Mint

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The Deteriorating Chinese Business

March 23, 2018 2:45PM

Chapter 11 Trustee Mark Calvert has been making a big stink about how the Medallic assets need to be sold soon, as 75% of Medallic's business is done between February 1 and May 1 (information which, interestingly, comes from Medalcraft).
However, it has been said that about 30% of NWTM's business was done with companies in China producing the product, and it is a high profit business, generating over $1M of profit annually. That's a nice chunk of change.

So what has happened to it?

It seems that NWTM employees have been taking bits and pieces to other companies. I am aware of what appears to be at least four companies that have hired NWTM employees, and are reportedly finding ways to get business from NWTM customers. I have heard rumors that Calvert was presented with a business plan from someone interested in running the Chinese business, who felt like it was overlooked and could be obtained cheaply. But it is not getting mentioned in the court documents (which is exactly why it is being overlooked), and the business is deteriorating. Shouldn't Calvert be speeding up the sale of the Chinese business, in addition to (or instead of) Medallic?

Once competitors have gobbled up all the customers, the customer list will have nearly no value. Except, of course, to those who already helped themselves to it. Taking an order from an NWTM customer is fine, cold calling or E-mailing NWTM customers is not.

UPDATE March 23, 2018 4:30PM: To be clear, the Chinese business was almost exclusively part of NWTM, with very little (if any) Medallic business being done in China

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Converting to Chapter 7

March 24, 2018 8:20PM

Yesterday, Chapter 11 Trustee Mark Calvert filed a motion requesting that the case be converted from Chapter 11 (reorganization) to Chapter 7 (liquidation).

I am trying to figure out what impact, if any, this may have for creditors (technically, the bankruptcy officials are considered administrative creditors, but I am referring to people owed money before the bankruptcy filing).

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NWTM is in a lot of financial trouble trying to shut down that operation after running it into the ground while it still had a value of many millions of Dollars, now it's being sold for whatever they can get for anything and they are desperate for cash. Please read the following three parts which are just a few of many that have been posted over the past few months hinting of real problems, but now it's more proof than suspicion.

A couple months ago they thought they could get 10 - 14 million Dollars for just that Medallic operation, with one sale after another falling apart and now it's who is going to get it for around 1 million Dollars and when if ever. Plus they are talking about an auction to sell just about everything in one month to raise cash. Seems like the creditors might not be the only ones screwed out of everything with the way things have been run into the ground over the past two years. Now it appears that all these financial people working for the Trustee are in jeopardy of not being paid their "fair" share of the crumbs with their small fees at hundreds of dollars an hours for next to nothing services, but totaling massive amounts and if I'm not mistaken one of these operation is connected to the trustee himself. Is it possible that the cow was milked to such an extent that they forgot to make sure there was enough left over for those doing the milking themselves, let alone those who actually were suppose to get the milk in the first place, the actual creditors!!! Yes if it had sold for 10 to 14 million the creditors would have received something, but apparently it wasn't really worth that much to anyone worthy of financing or they would have been able to get that kind of loan, at least that seems to be a reasonable assumption. Good thing for those trying to secure that loan that others knew it was a bad deal, bad for everyone else. The trustee even had the balls to refuse a higher offer from one investor because be heard Ross Hansen might be involved in the operation as an advisor of how to run it or so the story goes. Ross Hansen and some others offered a bid for the operation and that was also refused. I wonder if the trustee will be able to refuse to sell to the highest bidder at the auction if it's connected to Ross Hansen? You have to love a real pissing contest especially when it involves other peoples money other than those involved in the pissing contest.

"We're Broke, Want a Die for $300?"

April 14, 2018 9:25AM

NWTM has very, very little cash. We know that, for example, because they were late in paying employees their last paycheck.

But now the Trustee has apparently filed a motion that would allow him to sell dies back to the customers that paid to have them made, for $300 each (plus cost of shipping). It appears that part of his rationale for charging $300 is the costs of storage, but that appears to have already been built into the fee that was charged to create dies. In the words of one creditor, the sale of the dies is "a mechanism to extract additional consideration to compensate for the estate’s dire administrative insolvency."

That is clearly more than what it would cost to return them to the customers, and much more than what the Trustee feels the dies are worth. It appears that he wants to take advantage of the small percentage of customers who really need their dies back, to collect some extra money to help pay him. Remember, the estate doesn't have enough to fully pay back the professionals, so every extra dollar he can collect is an extra dollar that can be used to pay the professionals.

Another Allegation of Trustee Failing to Respond

April 14, 2018 12:05PM

The United States Golf Association recently filed an objection to one of the Trustee's recent motions.

In it, it claims that NWTM lured USGA into making purchases that NWTM stated would begin to be delivered by January 5, 2018 (one E-mail shows that they were all supposed to be delivered by January 5). Apparently, NWTM never notified USGA that they had shut down, and NWTM deposited a check two weeks after shutting down (for 2 new dies), and then never delivered the product.

USGA writes "The Trustee failed and/or refused to respond to USGA’s requests for compensation sent in February 2018 after learning of NWT’s non-fulfillment of the order..., and its further demand sent in March 2018".

This is starting to sound very, very familiar. I do my best not to "take sides", although recently someone felt that I was "vilifying" the Trustee and those around him. My response is "I calls 'em as I sees 'em" -- I write about whoever does something that needs to be written about. This is a very, very good example of why I write what I write: the Trustee has shown a clear pattern of refusing to respond to people when it doesn't fit his needs. It is true that I have zero evidence that he has not responded to people (and that's why I didn't write about it the first time I heard about it). But I have clear evidence that plenty of people have alleged that he has not responded to them. Had I not written about it the first time, people would not have gotten very useful information about the Trustee. I don't intend to vilify, but if the only way I can warn people makes it sound like I am vilifying, I'm going to warn people.

Epic Trustee Fail

April 14, 2018 11:55AM

Imagine sending a bank wire to NWTM for $22K for silver to be delivered in about 8 weeks, not getting it, and having nobody respond to your requests, hiring a lawyer to send a demand letter, and still getting no response.
This sounds like 2016 when people were yelling "That damned Ross Hansen!" But in this case, it happened a few months ago, and it should be "That damned Mark Calvert!"

The United States Gold Association, USGA, paid $22K on November 16, 2017 for silver for medals that NWTM was going to make for them by January 5, 2018. But NWTM apparently never even started working on the metals. On December 21, 2017, a week before the company shut down, NWTM even sent an invoice to make 2 more dies. The USGA never received the medals or the dies.

How in the world can Mr. Calvert shut down the company, laying off 100 employees, yet keep paying a skeleton crew to purportedly finish up business, but not finish orders NWTM already promised customers and taken money for? Apparently it wasn't profitable enough. Mr. Calvert wrote in February "The Trustee has completed certain profitable work in progress after the closing of the plant with the skeleton crew that remains employed in connection with the winddown and liquidation efforts of the estate." In fact, NWTM took in $405K in January and $158K in February for "Core Operating Sales". Presumably the USGA medals just weren't profitable enough to finish. Or return the money for. And not even profitable enough to justify a phone call to let them know they weren't going to get their order.

If NWTM took in well over $500K since the company shut down, and couldn't even complete a $900 order (part of that $500K, for 2 dies), how much of that $500K is money that NWTM took in and did not find profitable enough to make or return the money for? How many new creditors are there since Mr. Calvert took over?

Can Mr. Calvert have NWTM file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy... again? Creditors can force companies into Chapter 11 bankruptcy... but can they force a bankrupt company into bankruptcy?

Did NWTM know it could not deliver those orders it took money for? Can a company in bancruptcy take orders it knows cannot be delivered?

[valerb]

The following is in regards to the Northwest Territorial Mint Bullion part of the business, not the Medallic business.


NWTM Asset Auction Surprise: Bought In Whole

April 18, 2018 2:30PM

A company called Industrial Assets, d/b/a BidItUp, bought the NWTM assets for $1.95M in March, which we knew about. They were planning to auction to equipment (which they valued at over $5M) on May 2, 2018.
The surprise came within the past few hours, when the website changed, and now states "AUCTION CANCELLED • FACILITY SOLD IN ITS ENTIRETY". Presumably, someone came in with an offer for all the assets, that exceeded what BidItUp felt it could reasonably expect in the auction (somewhere well over the ~$2M they already invested). Why else would BidItUp cancel the auction?

So now it is time to report a rumor I had heard 2 days ago: that Ross Hansen had a "big deal" in the works, that he had found some investors (as he so often seems to), and repurchased NWTM in part or in whole, and that it would happen this week. I also heard that he asked the court on Monday for permission to travel to Nevada (where the NWTM assets are located), as early as yesterday.

From the reports, it sounds like Ross Hansen may have purchased the NWTM assets. To be clear, this only includes assets that were already sold (e.g. not the dies, inventory or Chinese business). Since BidItUp already bought the assets, this is happening outside the courtroom, so the records likely will not be public.