WILMINGTON, Del. (BRAIN) — Five and a half years after its filing, the bankruptcy case for the former owner of the Mad Fiber carbon wheel brand is finally wrapping up.
When the company, DCG Wheels LLC, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in late 2013 it listed assets of $1.21 million and liabilities of $1.65 million. Unsecured creditors eventually made claims for more than $9.1 million.
A bankruptcy auction in 2014 raised less than $40,000; Bob Stapleton, the former owner of the High Road pro cycling team and current chairman of USA Cycling, paid $31,000 for the wheel brand's intellectual property, which he apparently has never used. Another bidder paid $7,000 for tooling.
So as the case nears conclusion in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, the unsecured creditors, who include a few bike industry suppliers, will receive exactly zero in the final distribution, or as the trustee's final report has it: "The dividend for subordinated unsecured claims is anticipated to be 0.0%, plus interest (if applicable)."
Secured creditors and priority claimants, who include Mad Fiber co-founder Ric Hjertberg, also received no payments. The trustee, Charles Forman, and several attorneys and consultants for the trustee will split a total of $34,745 from the receipts for administrative expenses, from requests for payments totalling $130,000.
A hearing will be held Aug. 8 to hear any objections to the final report. The adminstrative payments will be made following that hearing if there are no objections.
In 2013, Mad Fiber was rolled up into the Divine Cycling Group, along with Serotta Cycles. DCG filed a Chapter 7 petition separately from the wheel company less than two weeks later. The DCG bankruptcy case was closed in 2017 without any distributions.
