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?

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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.

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Scheme To Prevent Bids for Medallic

April 22, 2018 12:15PM

From the looks of it, NWTM and/or Medalcraft came up with a nifty scheme to ensure that Medalcraft would get the Medallic assets. Part I: Move part of the value of Medallic to Medalcraft, Part II: use a "poison pill"-like strategy with a bogus threat to walk if the Judge doesn't approve the deal the day of the hearing.

In August, 2017, NWTM was furious at Medalcraft, threatening legal action. Somehow, though, by February, 2018 NWTM and Medalcraft were nice and cozy, and Medalcraft put in a "stalking horse bid" (a normal bankruptcy process, a guaranteed bid before an auction). After Medalcraft was outbid, NWTM cancelled the high bid from the qualified bidder as unqualified, and announced Medalcraft the winner -- but the Judge ruled that wasn't fair. Odd things then happened, such as NWTM offering to let Medalcraft pay less to be fair, Medalcraft offering to pay more to be fair, and the high bidder offering more to become qualified. Somehow, though, the high bidder backed off (why would the high bidder back off?), and NWTM again considers Medalcraft the high bidder. NWTM has approached the Court to approve the sale.

This time, though, it's a bit different. They are pretending it is an arms-length transaction, with Chapter 11 Trustee Mark Calvert pointing out that Medalcraft will walk away if the Judge does not approve the sale the day of the hearing. But things have gone further, with Medallic telling customers that Medalcraft now has the die information, Medallic referring customers to Medalcraft, and Medallic even shipping dies to Medalcraft. Medalcraft even appears to have been given the Medallic customer list. For every customer Medallic refers to Medalcraft and every die they send to Medalcraft, the value of Medallic goes down further, reducing the value to other potential bidders if the Court does not approve the sale.

Now, I'm sure that Calvert would say this is an arms-length transaction. But how in the world can it be? In an truly arms-length transaction, Medalcraft would be treated almost exactly the same as other bidders (the exception being that they were the stalking horse bidder). But Medalcraft has gotten NWTM employees, Medalcraft has violated their non-solicitation agreement, Medallic has sent business to Medalcraft, Medallic has sent dies to Medalcraft, and Calvert is pushing Medalcraft's bogus threat to walk away (Calvert is "concerned" that Medallic will walk if the peak season is over, but Medalcraft's threatened "drop dead" date is after the peak season is over). Did Paul Wagner chat about his personal business with other bidders? Did Calvert treat Mr. May the same way? Did Calvert treat other bidders (such as the one who put down a $100K deposit, only to have Calvert accidentally sell some of the assets he bid on) the same way? From the facts -- mostly hidden from the Court -- it does not seem like an arms-length transaction.

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I may not be free for long, but I'mmmmmm back

Ross Hansen's Friend Buys NWTM Assets

April 25, 2018 4:35PM

In my previous post, I mentioned that I am going through the audio from the April 20, 2018 hearing.

In it, Mr. Neu (the attorney for Chapter 11 Trustee Mark Calvert) says that Mr. May was no longer interested in purchasing the NWTM/Medallic assets as of April 19 (which is odd, given that the Trustee was requesting the Court approve a sale to Medalcraft without mentioning whether Mr. May was still bidding).

Mr. Neu then said that Mr. May entered into an agreement with Industrial Assets (who bought the NWTM assets for $1.95M, and was planning to auction them) to purchase all the NWTM assets that Industrial Assets bought. Mr. Neu then said that Mr. May is financing this on behalf of Michael Parrish who is Ross Hansen's friend.

Michael Parrish was brought up in court before a few times, including at a recent hearing where it was mentioned that Mr. Parrish was "trying to get his hands on the assets" via Mr. Hansen. He also appeared in docket 1110.

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The wind down is starting to look more like a wind up for some interesting look see what we really have here.


"Crazy Colorful Conspiracy Theorists"

May 11, 2018 8:40AM

I obtained a copy of the audio of the May 4, 2018 hearing. In this post, I am going to focus on just one seemingly unimportant aspect of the hearing: the allegations of conspiracy theories. Basically, one of the members of the creditors' committee, an ex-member, and myself (along with a few others) wrote to the court with allegations of what has been going on.

The Judge brought up these letters, and proceeded to ask Mr. Gearin (the Trustee's attorney) a question related to them.

Later, Mr. Gearin referred to a small number of people, some of whom have no interest in the case, filing unfounded and unsupported allegations. He suggests they are all baseless, based on rumor and innuendo. Then another attorney twice referred to some creditors believing in conspiracy theories. The U.S. Trustee, Martin Smith, then jumped in the ring and said that this case "has many colorful characters" that go down paths "none of us would imagine are there." Hmmm.

The Judge then said that he hopes the U.S. Trustee's office won't just blow off the letters as "crazy colorful consipiracy theories."

We've got two things here. The letters contain a lot of allegations, which the Trustee's attorney is suggesting are false. And an attorney brought up conspiracy theories, which the U.S. Trustee seemed to agree with. The problem with the allegations is that some/many have already been proven true (in fact, when the Judge asked Mr. Gearin "Are those allegations all correct?" at one point sheepishly admitted that they were true). As for the conspiracy theory (defined as "covert but influential organization is responsible for a circumstance or event"), I don't like going into things like that.

But since an attorney and the U.S. Trustee have obviously heard it, I think it is important to bring it up.

The conspiracy theory goes something like this (do not believe that this is all true): Mark Calvert and Ross Hansen got introduced in February, 2016, and conspired to work together in secret to benefit both of them. When a Trustee was going to be appointed, it couldn't be Mr. Calvert (due to his involvement), but Mr. Calvert brags about his "very special relationship" to the then-Acting U.S. Trustee Gail Geiger, who lets him do it (with a bit of help of Mr. Gearin, who conned some creditors into convincing the court to appoint a Trustee). Martin Smith feels that he has "clean hands" since he did not make the authorization himself. Calvert and Hansen acted as though they were enemies, yet conspiring all along, with Calvert shredding evidence that would put Ross Hansen in jail. Calvert would then intentionally cause the company to fail (e.g. ignoring real offers while accepting $10M offers from people who have no money, not firing the 'henchmen', and ignoring great proposals), allowing him and his bankruptcy professional buddies to rack up a ton of fees, Ross would get out of prison (or have minimal prison time, and later dig up his buried bullion), and Paul Wagner would get the multi-million dollar Chinese business. They would cause odd things to occur, like leak a rumor that the "Titanic" medal was stolen (and then returned!), to confuse people and make those looking into the truth seem crazy. And Mr. Gearin told his buddy Mark Northrup (the Unsecured Creditors' Committee attorney) not to remove Calvert as Trustee, so Mr. Gearin threatened UCC members who threatened to remove Mr. Calvert. Meanwhile, Medalcraft is funding Mr. Wagner's business, which is located in Dayton so that NWTM assets can easily be moved there. When anyone gets close, Calvert will threaten to send the FBI after them. And to top it off, the only other person Calvert has sent to jail, Darren Berg of Meridian Mortgage, escaped prison last December!

That's a fairly typical conspiracy theory: it mixes in a few facts with a lot of speculation, with the speculation part getting out of control, yet hard to completely disprove. People who want to believe it will focus on the true pieces, and believe the rest. But where it fails is that Mark Calvert and Ross Hansen aren't smart enough to pull off something like this together.

Note that none of the letters in any way refer to the conspiracy theory. So their comments about conspiracy theories were just meant to belittle those of us that had the courage to write in.

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More from the wild and wooly western courtroom


The Judge Grills Mr. Calvert, Mr. Gearin, Mr. Smith

May 11, 2018 1:25PM

As I previously mentioned, at the May 4 hearing, the Judge brought up the letters several of us wrote to the court.
The Judge mentioned a previous employee of NWTM, who had signed a declaration in support of the sale to Medalcraft. I had written that she now works at Medalcraft, and was the employee that Mark Calvert referred to when he wrote "[she] appears to be contacting customers of the estate and attempting to divert business to the competitor. The competitor’s violation of its nonsolicitation agreement with the estate may adversely impact operational results and give rise to actionableeeds.ges [sic] claims". I also pointed out that Medalcraft was the competitor in question. So were these allegations of mine "unfounded and unsupported" and "based on rumor and innuendo" as Mr. Gearin suggested of my allegations? When the Judge asked Mr. Gearin "Are those allegations all correct?", his first words were "It is true."

The Judge made it clear that he is concerned about the lack of full disclosure, and causes him to think something is being hidden.

Next, the Judge brought up the dies. Mr. Calvert admitted that he "relied on marketing material" for the past 2 years when referring to 400,000 dies. Calvert referred to 400,000 dies as a "Ross number", but the Judge pointed out that for 2 years Calvert has been using that number, even to justify fees for researching dies.

The Judge turned the floor to the Martin Smith, of the U.S. Trustee's office, regarding complaints about the Chapter 11 Trustee Mark Calvert. Mr. Smith decided to refer to colorful characters, indirect references to conspiracy theories, and allegations. The Judge then pointed out that these aren't just specious allegations. He said he has some grave concerns about the case, and is not pleased as being approached as "colorful characters" raising issues.

The Judge then pointed out some "regular payments" to Cascade Capital (Calvert's company). These payments aren't fraud: one example was reimbursement for a payment for an electric bill via a Cascade credit card (to speed up payment). But it isn't allowed. The Judge said "Mr. Smith, I hope you are taking notes. This is yet another problem. We talked about this in October. You did it before, I said you cannot do that. It doesn't matter if it is small."

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In reality, neither of these two individuals should ever be allowed near a bankrupt company again as neither one can figure out the simple task of what is someone's hourly pay for vacation purposes, when you are a salary person. Plus they both use the same method for other purposes to calculate his hourly salary. The person in question was off by an extra $1000. in his figures and the trustee was so far off, his abacus was having a migraine. I hope the judge has the common sense to realize there are 52 weeks in a year and not 48 for these bozo's, oh god it takes me back to an earlier time trying to explain that to a card carrying high school graduate. As for the trustee and his math skills, this might help explain why things didn't go his way.


Trustee Misconduct and Bounced Checks

May 16, 2018 8:45AM

I previously reported that NWTM CEO Bill Atalla filed a motion attempting to get paid what he is owed. Remember, as an employee of NWTM (rather than a professional), he is supposed to be paid in the normal course of business (not requiring court approval, like the professionals). $220,209 in total

The Trustee replied, admitting Atalla hasn't been fully paid yet, but claiming that the amount actually owed was quite a bit less.

For the foregoing reasons, the Trustee requests that the Court disallow Bill Atalla’s Claim in the amount of $129,800, and allow the Claim in the amount of $90,409. The Trustee also requests that the Court order that Bill Atalla’s allowed Claim be paid on a pro-rata basis with, and at the same time as, other allowed administrative claims.

Today, Atalla replied to the Trustee. He states, for example, "The trustee is seeking to benefit from his own misconduct" (e.g. that he failed to pay bills when due). Atalla also refers to having checks from NWTM bounce. What? I can understand NWTM not writing a check, but writing a check that bounces? How can you justify billing the estate over $1.5M (as Trustee and his accounting firm) when you are bouncing checks? Don't schools teach kids that if you do not have the money in your account, you simply do not write a check? And it was checks, plural. Not a simple one-time mistake.

CONCLUSION (he hopes)
For the foregoing reasons, the Court should enter an order directing the trustee to
forthwith pay Atalla the following sums:
Deferred compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $12,500.00
Expense reimbursement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2909.00
Vacation pay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25,000.00 (should only be $24,000 if the judge can add himself)
Severance pay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $100,000.00
Late payment penalty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25,000.00
TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $165,409.00

The Court should further award Atalla an administrative expense claim of $54,800.00 for his post-December 29, 2017 services, plus attorney fees of $4303.41, a total
of $59,103.41, to be paid on the same basis as other administrative expenses herein.

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More on May 4 Hearing

May 18, 2018 3:30PM

The May 4, 2018 hearing was important, as it covered the Medallic sale to Medalcraft (approved) and the motion to convert to Chapter 7 (denied). And the Judge started asking questions of the Trustee.
The Judge asked Chapter 11 Trustee Mark Calvert if he knew anything about allegations that someone is planning to use the Chinese dies. Calvert stated that he doesn't know of anybody that plans to use the Chinese dies (other than Medalcraft in accordance with their agreement, which is an interesting story, as Medalcraft shouldn't have anything to do with the Chinese dies). He said "No, I have no knowledge of anyone who plans to use the dies in China." Calvert also stated that he cannot find a buyer for the ~$1M of store inventory (~$2M retail), which is made mostly from the dies in China.

Mr. Calvert stated that he has had "great discussion" with Paul Wagner, and that Mr. Calvert asked Mr. Wagner to "write a memo of his proposed activities post-employment" (which seems odd to me, as his activities during employment seem more important -- and because Mr. Calvert had apparently seen Mr. Wagner's business plan around 2016). Mr. Calvert states that Mr. Wagner has no desire to buy assets from the estate, and has no desire for any intellectual property. But he is looking at the possibililty of manufacturing items in China and selling them on the Internet or to other buyers.

The Trustee's attorney, Mr. Gearin, discussed allegations that metal was not properly inventoried, and pointed out how there is evidence and video of the inventory. Which is completely, utterly pointless, as Mr. Calvert has refused to release any of that evidence, which some have claimed shows that Mr. Calvert inventoried metal that he now denies NWTM has in its possession.Huh. In other words, 'Judge, those allegations are false. Why? Because we say so. Trust us, please.'