Regency Stamp Auctions In St. Louis

Regardless of the 'hang him without a trial' mentality shown in this forum bankruptcy has a procedure and in this country we have laws.

1. A petition is filed either voluntary or involuntary to declare the business bankrupt. Of course they might declare Chapter 11 or 13 which allows the company to 'reorganization' or come up with some new financing which would allow possible payment of debts. The petition should include a schedule of any debts and assets.
2. At that point they call a hearing with the purpose of notifying all the creditors and to assign a trustee who will oversee the bankruptcy. Debtors are able to view the listed debts and assets.
3. The trustee develops a report to determine what debts are dischargeable, any assets might be exempt, and what payments might be possible.
4. At this point any creditors are allowed to request a part of any remaining assets by filing a "creditor's claim."
5. If the trustee finds any misdeeds, fraud, or other illegal activity then it would drive new investigations and criminal charges.
6. Barring additional criminal actions the last step of the procedure is to discharge the bankruptcy which clears any remaining unsecured debts.

So a lot of this hangs on the assigned trustee. Does anyone know if bankruptcy has been declared? If so, in which court (location)? Who is the trustee? When are the hearings? If anyone is owed large amounts of money, or wants to make a case for fraud, then they should be getting themselves lawyers and find out the answers to these questions. This is the information that we should be communicating if we are trying to help the debtors.

Note that we currently have none of this information or know what has actually happened to the business. Some immediately jumped to the worse, assuming fraud and faking cancer, but there are all kinds of ways the business might have failed. The business might have simply failed due to stupid business decisions. In this country it is not a crime to make bad business decisions. Many business fail or declare bankruptcy due to other legal actions. For example a customer trips and falls, the business loses the case and gets a large judgement against them. The roof on the business can collapse or it might be that market conditions changed or some new competitor kicks their butt. Or perhaps the government changes some regulations which drives them out of business. And of course it could be that he committed fraud/crimes and made off with the cash. But the critical point here is that none of us knows diddly squat and in this country everyone has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

If someone has evidence of wrongdoing then they should contact court officials. But until the legal proceeding have played out correct thing to do is to step back from the unsubstantiated accusations.
Don

This is a chat room not a court room . Everyone is free to express their point of view ,we are all big boys and girl and understand there will be view points we each disagree with .
"the critical point is that none of us know diddly squat "---REALLY . I don't need a law degree to see people come on here and explain their story about REGENCY and figure out they have been injured in their transaction .
We need to be careful not to inpead facts that are coming out and give people a place they can connect with others ------What is being stated is go get a lawyer and go to court ------This is a place to exchange ideas and and make connections .

I have not closed the thread or prohibited anyone's opinion. But note that there is a forum rule which disallows personal attacks. I looked the other way on several posts which are indeed personal attacks without any evidence. Exchange all the ideas you want, if anyone has any evidence they can present it here if they want. But making unsubstantiated accusations is plain wrong and a big problem with social media today.
Don

Let me make it perfectly clear, before any trial

This is ok...
"I think they should look closer to see if there was fraud or if he stole any money"

This is NOT ok...
"This guy is a thief"


After trial and conviction then the second statement becomes ok.

Regardless of your personal opinion or the legal outcomes of this sad situation the long term loser will be the reputation of our hobby.

First: I really hope this thread will be open until vi get more facts about the situation - and hopefully some help for future proceedings.
Secondly: Can the bank close the business without official consents? They may surely close the accounts concerning payments if there is no money left, but running the company down and selling Inventory? As far as I know - this is a criminal act in Norway where I live. If the Company later files for bankruptcy, and the bank has taken all assets giving the remaining creditors nothing, they may be sued for covering their own ass. Is this the situation at Regency Superior right now?

@Holmsbu17 - Those questions were addressed early in this thread. It would be best to read the whole thing starting from page 1.

I've just searched online state and federal court case records. As of this morning:
-- there are no federal civil cases in the Eastern District of Missouri (covering St. Louis) involving Regency or Kols
-- there are no federal bankruptcy cases in the Eastern District of Missouri (covering St. Louis) involving Regency or Kols
-- in state court in St. Louis, MURPHY COMPANY MECHANICAL CONTRACTORS AND ENGINEERS filed a mechanics' lien against Regency-Superior Ltd. on 08/09/2017. No other details are available but usually this suggests that HVAC work, or similar, was done and not paid for.
-- in state court in St. Louis, two American Express entities sued "David Kols" on 07/28/2017 for breach of contract and a trial date has been set for January 2018. I would caution that based on other records found in the search, there may be multiple people named "David Kols" in the St. Louis area.

Chris

One question I haven't seen answered here (unless I missed it):

If a consignor in the US had the stamp insurance from APS/Hugh Wood or the other major provider, would they be covered in this kind of situation?

I appreciate that the answer may be different depending on whether they were a collector or had the dealer insurance instead, but I would welcome hearing the answers for either or both situations.

When I worked at a commercial bank, loan agreements always had a right to offset clause which meant they could dip into any accounts with money to pay against the loan. We had loans that were secured by inventory with a percentage being loaned against the inventory value. When inventory was sold, that loan ratio needed to be paid against the loan. If Regency had a loan like this and was not making payments, the bank could take over the inventory similar to a home foreclosure.

For the last five months I have watched this SCF thread, with growing disgust. SCF violates it's own rules allowing people to make posts with unfounded character attacks. SCF permits unfounded allegations to be posted against a man, David Kols, dying of cancer. Well done, you should all be of yourselves -- especially SCF Monitors who are suppose to be the "mature voice" in this discussion.

To ALL: If you want to learn Bankruptcy Law -- LEARN IT like I did! This is not the place.
To ALL: Stop giving legal advise. If you are NOT an Officer of the Court -- Get a Law Degree or keep you mouth shut.
To ALL: Every Bankruptcy case is unique; no two are the same.
To ALL: What a Commercial Bank MAY have done or how inventory may/or may not have been secured against loans vary from client to client. No two are the same.
To ALL: STOP speculating about the APS.
To ALL: Are you a Debtor? YES? File a Claim with the Bankruptcy Court! NO, THIS IS NOT THE PLACE TO FILE YOU CLAIM -- DO IT IN THE FEDERAL BANKRUPTCY COURT!
TO ALL: IF YOU HAVE PROOF OF ANY ACT(S) OF MALEFICENCE, COME FORTH AND PROVE IT TO THE COURT. THIS IS NOT where UNFOUNDED GOSSIP should be aired. Stop acting like a bunch of gossiping old men!

TO ALL: I'm sorry for legitimate Debtors/Consignors that lost money... but that's the price/cost of doing business. Unfortunately, it happens occasionally in business. It happen to me years ago in dealing with Roger Koerber Auctions years ago. I didn't whine and throw a temper tantrum about it! You have recourse, like I did, through your Accountant or Tax Attorney with Tax Deductions & Write-offs. So while you don't get the cash return outright... you do have full tax recourse! So, stop your whining and accusing someone of stealing -- especially when you do not have proof. Companies going out-of-business is a fact of life -- get use to it!

I say this once again: David Kols is a human being dying of cancer. STOP kicking the man in his last days. Would you want this treatment? Even if you lost a dollar - BUT, no one has~No one... and I mean NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT to make the unfounded accusations plus incite public lynchings; that was disallowed 100 years ago. What you have thrown at this man and at his company is disgusting.

We have a saying in my part of the world; grow-up; be a mensch; help when you can; don't gossip like old women; don't tell part truths; don't kick a man while he's down and needs help.

no offense is intended, but... who are you to lecture people and tell them to shut up? Forums are places for voicing opinions, for good or ill.

If you don't like the tenor of the discussion in this thread, no one is forcing you to read it, let alone reply to it. Browsers have Back buttons for a reason.

I encounter countless threads on this and other forums that make me roll my eyes. Do I complain about what other people are posting about or how? No, I typically hit the back button and move on to discussion that I will enjoy reading and/or partaking in.

As this thread demonstrates, moderating this forum is not an easy job. There are two moderators here; Kirk and I volunteer our time here. I know I have reviewed tens of thousands of posts since I started and Kirk has been a Mod for far longer than myself. Having to monitor every category, read every post, easily consumes many hours (10+) per week. And Bobby, forum administrator, dwarfs us both in terms of dedication and sacrifice.

And while we might like to think of philately and our community as being a friendly place, there are indeed some nasty bad apples. Just in the last few weeks I received the following emails concerning the moderator job I am doing here.

(referring to my post in the 'Show Yourself' thread with the image of me laying in the hospital bed)


Followed up a few hours later with this threat


Yes, I could have shut down this discussion and locked out the memberships of those which posted personal attacks. Instead I tried to give everyone some latitude while nudging some in the thread to a less aggressive position.
Don

-----this isn't a court room ,this is a chat room .Everybody is free to express a opinion . As Don said we need to keep it from personnel attacks and nobody wish anybody ill health .

Hal does raise one good point, by reference. Those who have substantial money at stake in the Regency event should have engaged their own attorneys long before now.

And I for one appreciate the job that the mods do here. It can often be thankless, but clearly a labor of love.

Don, you are truly a saint to turn the other cheek on some of the things you describe. Your work here and on Stamp Smarter is much appreciated.

And regarding the above lecture on bankruptcy law, I would add that the "debtor" in a bankruptcy proceeding would be Regency. Consignors and others seeking to recover money would be "creditors."

The thread as a whole has been educational but need to get the personal aspects out. You can tell many were not aware of the number of people and organizations affected.