In re Raejean S. Bonham dba World Plus
Bankruptcy No. F95-00897
Unofficial Web Site
This page reports questions that the Chapter 7 Trustee gets asked a lot. Some of the answers are quite complex, and difficult to set out briefly. So there are necessarily some partial answers.
You can submit your own question if you want.
RL asks: "Is the trustee going to leave the settlement offer open indefinitely? Isn't it unfair to allow the same terms two years later?"
It's true that BRA defendants settling now are getting a little bit of a break - presumably they could have made interest on their payments. And no, the Trustee will not leave the settlement offer open indefintely.
Generally, questions about the Credit Committee site ("The Forum") aren't suitable for FAQs. There are a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings posted at the site. There's no point in developing warring web sites. But this one is easy.
The definition of "security" in this case is governed by Federal law, not the Alaska Uniform Commercial Code section that they refer to. Basically, they are talking about the wrong definition from the wrong government. The governing statute provides:
When used in this subchapter, unless the context otherwise requires -
(1) The term "security" means any note, stock, treasury stock, bond, debenture, evidence of indebtedness, certificate of interest or participation in any profit-sharing agreement, collateral-trust certificate, preorganization certificate or subscription, transferable share, investment contract, voting-trust certificate, certificate of deposit for a security, fractional undivided interest in oil, gas, or other mineral rights, any put, call, straddle, option, or privilege on any security, certificate of deposit, or group or index of securities (including any interest therein or based on the value thereof), or any put, call, straddle, option, or privilege entered into on a national securities exchange relating to foreign currency, or, in general, any interest or instrument commonly known as a "security", or any certificate of interest or participation in, temporary or interim certificate for, receipt for, guarantee of, or warrant or right to subscribe to or purchase, any of the foregoing.
There are lots of pages of regulations further defining the term. There are thousands of cases interpreting the statutes and regulations. There really isn't any question that the "investment contracts" issued by Raejean Bonham and World Plus were "securities."
What's the Securities and Exchange Commission's claim and role in this case?
How do you know that Raejean Bonhams business wasn't legit?
Doesn't Delta's claim for $10 million prove she sold large volumes of tickets or frequent flier miles?
EW asks, "What does it mean when a trustee dismisses a bankruptcy case? What are the consequences to the debtor?"
Exactly how does bankruptcy work?
See Section 507 for more information on priorities.
What's this "voidable preference" business?
There are whole volumes written on just this question. It starts with the Bankruptcy Code section involved, Section 547 - Preferences. Simply stated, Congress lets the bankruptcy trustee set aside or "avoid" transactions not in the ordinary course of business made in the 90 days preceding the date of the bankruptcy petition, 365 days in the case of a transaction with an insider.
Why isn't the debtor in jail?
Bankruptcy Judge, attorneys and trustees have very little to do with the enforcement of the criminal laws. While all are required to report bankruptcy crimes when they encounter them, none of them are prosecutors. Sorry.
Why aren't the debtor's pleadings posted at this site?
We can post the pleadings we generate, and certain kinds of court documents, because we have them as computer files. It is quite difficult and time-consuming to take paper-based copies and convert them to computer files. In addition, our computers are Macintosh-based, which imposes some additional limitations.
Are we paying for this?
Nope. It's donated.