Multimedia Platforms creditors still hoping for money owed
by Fred Kuhr
Just over a year ago, Fort Lauderdale-based Multimedia Platforms Worldwide — publisher of the Florida Agenda and Los Angeles-based Frontiers and promised to be the “world’s largest LGBT media conglomerate” — filed for bankruptcy protection.
And now comes news its creditors are on the verge of eating their losses.
According to reporting in Wilton Manors-based South Florida Gay News (SFGN), the U.S. trustee assigned to the case is now asking that the case for reorganization be dismissed. The trustee complained that the company failed to keep its promises and recommended a straight bankruptcy, which would eliminate any chance of court approved paybacks.
The listing of creditors made public by Multimedia last year was 36 pages long. Aside from investors, Multimedia also admitted owing back payroll and income taxes totaling more than $500,000, reported SFGN.
In the initial bankruptcy petition, Multimedia states that its estimated assets are less than $50,000 and its estimated liabilities are somewhere between $1 million and $10 million.
A potential dismissal of the reorganization would mean serious hardship to investors, including Alan Beck, listed as one of Multimedia’s largest, who is owed $458,000. The former publisher of the popular Columbia Fun Maps, which Multimedia acquired, told SFGN, “This bankruptcy has been a serious blow to many individuals and to our LGBT community and it is obvious now that gross mismanagement and greed were two of the major factors in play.”
The petition by the U.S. trustee accuses CEO Bobby Blair of continuing negligence, charging in August of this year that “ten months have passed since the date of its bankruptcy filing and the debtor has not filed a plan or single disclosure statement.”
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Volume 19
Issue 7
