Apostolou & Home - Sovereigns in Giordano's Pizza Bankruptcy

[jcolvin2]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... feedburner

Bonus: JJ MacNab is quoted

Edited 11:50 am PDT to add Home to title of thread.

[Gregg]

The latest on the alleged book is it's gonna be part of the final NESARA settlements.

[Kestrel]

Oh my. This one gets interesting. I don't have a personal PACER account so I can't look it up, but I was able to glean the highlights from public news sources:

It's pretty tame to start with: The John Apostolou files a voluntary Chapter 11 Reorganization Bankruptcy for Giordano's Pizza in February 2011, after defaulting on $46 million in real estate loans owed to Fifth Third Bank (there's probably an interesting backstory here also). Fifth Third Bank supports the Chapter 11 Reorganization, providing a $36 million interim financing loan to keep the pizza chain open. Fifth Third Bank also puts the bankruptcy court on notice that they support the possible sale of the company to new owners. Money talks - an interim financing loan that big shows a lot of faith in the ability of the business itself to survive; the five largest unsecured creditors are collectively owed less than one million.

Then the plot gets bizarre: The threat of losing the business in a bankruptcy sale must have spooked Apostolou. Enter Marshall Home, sovrun citizun and newly appointed business advisor to Apostolou.
-- In March, Home, Apostolou, and others co-sign and join in filing an involuntary bankruptcy petition against the US Government, certain federal agencies and various banks. The court dismisses this case in May.
-- In April, Apostolou and his wife file documents in the Giordano's Chapter 11 claiming to be "American Freemen, free inhabitants of the Illinois state...", prompting their bankruptcy attorneys to withdraw from the case.
-- In May, Apostolou tries to dismiss the pizza chain's Chapter 11 case, and file documents with the bankruptcy court claiming they don't recognize US currency and are free of legal constraints!!! Meanwhile Marshall Home (the presumptive source of the "we don't recognize US currency" statement) files a $150 million claim in the pizza chain bankruptcy case, which the court promptly dismisses as fraudulent.

So now a Trustee has been appointed to run Giordano's Pizza (uncommon in a Chapter 11), and Apostolou has been evicted from the premises.

"I still don't know why I was replaced," [Apostolou] said... "I didn't want to sell the pizza chain." He said he wasn't given the time to independently raise funds to retain control of the business.

I don't feel the least bit sorry for him or Home. Ironically, for men who claim to not recognize US currency they've put a great deal of effort into getting control of a lot of it. But I'm sure this soap opera will have several more twisting episodes before it comes to an end.

[wserra]

That is indeed quite a story. The most recent chapter is told in more detail in Martino's motion to sanction Home. And Apostolou's "Notice" that he was terminating the bankruptcy is kinda funny, in a dumbass sovrun sort of way.

[Kestrel]

That is indeed quite a story. The most recent chapter is told in more detail in Martino's motion to sanction Home.

Thanks for retrieving those motions. Wow. So Home, the self-proclaimed bankruptcy "expert," tries post-petition to perfect a security interest "in the assets of all of the Debtors", and does it by filing a UCC-1 in California (of all places) without any supporting documentation? Apparently, when a sovrun citizun can't find laws that work in his favor, he has the presumptive authority to make up his own on the spot.

And Apostolou's "Notice" that he was terminating the bankruptcy is kinda funny, in a dumbass sovrun sort of way.

He can't even get his case number right. And he files a pauper's affidavit claiming the US has no legitimate currency, despite the fact that he happily took several million in "Federal Reserve Accounting Unit Denominators (FRAUDs)" as his personal compensation during the years immediately preceding the bankruptcy. Whatever happened to "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's"? Surely he had enough FRAUDs lying around to pay a filing fee.

I'll stay tuned for next week's episode. Same Bat-time. Same Bat-channel.

[The Operative]

A Wall Street Journal blog has some interesting information, if it is true.

Apostolou and his wife bought the company in 1988,...

Apostolou gradually grew the chain’s franchise network and expanded outside Illinois for the first time in 2005, opening six restaurants in Florida. Giordano’s itself operates six company-owned locations and four joint-venture locations.

But Apostolou used Giordano’s assets to secure a loan he took out to invest in a Florida real-estate development near Walt Disney World. When he missed a payment in January, Fifth Third Bank wouldn’t negotiate and threatened to foreclose, he said.

On Feb. 16, Apostolou signed the bankruptcy petition for Giordano’s Enterprises Inc.

He hired an outside restructuring adviser to file the necessary financial reports and to pay court fees, but both duties went unfulfilled. Amid the confusion, the court put [Chicago lawyer Phillip] Martino in charge, effectively firing the Apostolous.

It is hard to determine the exact sequence of events. If Apostolou did hire an adviser to file the paperwork and either 1) the adviser failed to do so; or 2) Apostolou did not hire the adviser soon enough to accomplish what had to be done; it shows why Apostolou found Home and apparently went sovereign. A man desperate to save his family's business may do some stupid things. Unfortunately, nothing he is doing now has any chance of helping to get his business back.

[Kestrel]

It is hard to determine the exact sequence of events. If Apostolou did hire an adviser to file the paperwork and either 1) the adviser failed to do so; or 2) Apostolou did not hire the adviser soon enough to accomplish what had to be done; it shows why Apostolou found Home and apparently went sovereign. A man desperate to save his family's business may do some stupid things. Unfortunately, nothing he is doing now has any chance of helping to get his business back.

Pretty tight time frame we're dealing with here. The Giordano's bankruptcy was filed February 16th, and the Arizona petition trying to put the US government into involuntary bankruptcy was co-signed by Home and Apostolou only 4 weeks later, on March 16th.

Now maybe Apostoulou hired his first financial advisor before filing his own Chapter 11, and maybe 2 or 3 weeks is enough time for him to get fed up with waiting for action from the advisor, go looking for a guy like Home, and agree to co-sign that stupid Arizona petition. Maybe.

Somehow I doubt it. Seems to me like there was probably a connection between Apostolou and Home long before the Giordano's bankruptcy was filed.

[Judge Roy Bean]

Marshall Home strikes again:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... homes.html

A Tucson mayoral candidate from a fringe political party has seized dozens of foreclosed homes in metro Phoenix, changing the locks, kicking out real-estate agents and posting "Do Not Trespass" signs.

Marshall Home, who claims many foreclosures are illegal, has filed documents in the past two weeks with the Maricopa County Recorder's Office showing he has supposedly taken ownership of at least 21 homes belonging to government-owned mortgage giant Fannie Mae. But none of the documents shows any money has changed hands, and Fannie Mae says it has not sold the houses.

[grixit]

Huh. When i knew him he owned one house and one small commercial building, both somewhat run down. And now he's Donald Trump. I really should have charged him more

But now he's operating in Phoenix? Has he ever heard of Joe Arpaio, the "World's Toughest Sheriff"?

[Judge Roy Bean]

It didn't take Fannie long to sue Home:

http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/06/24/37650.htm

Fannie Mae says that "in addition to a 2002 felony conviction for assaulting a deputy U.S. Marshal, Home has a history of wasting judicial resources by filing frivolous lawsuits in various Arizona courts."
Home dropped out of the Democratic mayoral primary race on June 16 after he was sued in connection to the 2002 assault.
A Jan. 31 lawsuit filed by Home against the Maricopa and Pima County superior courts used claims like "slavery" and "treason," the lawsuit claims.
On May 18, Arizona Bankruptcy Judge Eileen Hollowell declared Home a "vexatious litigant," and banned him from "making future filings without permission of the court in light of his history of filing 'improper' and 'frivolous' pleadings," according to the complaint.

The filing:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/06/24/Fannie.pdf

[Kestrel]

From the complaint:

60. Home registered the trade name “Federal National Mortgage Association” with the Arizona Secretary of State on December 30, 2010. [See Exhibit D.]
61. Home repeatedly used this trade name to attempt to convey and/or sell real property in the state of Arizona.
62. The documents Home used in his attempt to convey and/or sell real property (the SW Deeds) were executed by Home as purported “Authorized Representative” of “Federal National Mortgage Association.”
63. Pursuant to 12 U.S.C. 1723a(e), Plaintiff is entitled to an injunction restraining Home, and the IRP, from using the trade name of “Federal National Mortgage Association.”
64. Plaintiff also requests an Order cancelling Home’s trade name certification of “Federal National Mortgage Association.”
65. As a result of Defendants' breach of 12 U.S.C. 1723a(e), Plaintiff has incurred, and is incurring, actual damages in an amount to be proven at trial.
66. The Arizona Secretary of State’s records reflect Home has been illegally doing business in Arizona under the trade name “Federal National Mortgage Association” since December 30, 2010. Pursuant to 12 U.S.C. 1723a(e), Plaintiff is therefore entitled to punitive damages, in an amount of up to $100 per day, from December 30, 2010 up, and until, said trade name is voluntarily cancelled by Defendants, or cancelled by Court Order.

So we now add "Identity Theft" to Home's list. But that's nothing new.

Maybe next he'll start taking advantage of the accident of parentage which resulted in him being named "Home." Those were "Homes" he took possession of, weren't they?

[ArthurWankspittle]

66. The Arizona Secretary of State’s records reflect Home has been illegally doing business in Arizona under the trade name “Federal National Mortgage Association” since December 30, 2010. Pursuant to 12 U.S.C. 1723a(e), Plaintiff is therefore entitled to punitive damages, in an amount of up to $100 per day, from December 30, 2010 up, and until, said trade name is voluntarily cancelled by Defendants, or cancelled by Court Order.

That's only $18,000 ish so far. Home may have to come up with the $5000 per document for his 28 filings too. (it's around the 70 something numbers in the document). I think he could be in for fines and costs totalling about $250,000 if nothing goes his way.

[Red Cedar PM]

If you want real Chicago pizza, Geno's East or D'Agostino's is better anyway.

[Judge Roy Bean]

If you want real Chicago pizza, Geno's East or D'Agostino's is better anyway.

Not to divert the thread too far, but why would anyone want a "Chicago" pizza?

[Pottapaug1938]

If you want real Chicago pizza, Geno's East or D'Agostino's is better anyway.

Not to divert the thread too far, but why would anyone want a "Chicago" pizza?

With the North End of Boston nearby, I sure wouldn't.

[ArthurWankspittle]

Marshall Home sticks his nose in where it's not wanted: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... 4378.story

...resulted in an Arizona man being led away by three security guards and escorted out of the building after he interrupted the proceedings and made a vaguely threatening remark.

[Red Cedar PM]

If you want real Chicago pizza, Geno's East or D'Agostino's is better anyway.

Not to divert the thread too far, but why would anyone want a "Chicago" pizza?

With the North End of Boston nearby, I sure wouldn't.

Both of you can do me a favor -

1. Go to Geno's East on Rush
2. Order the Meaty Legend
3. Wait 45 minutes because real Chicago pizza takes that long to make (don't worry, it's worth it)
4. Eat the best pizza ever made
5. Come back here and eat crow

[Pottapaug1938]

Both of you can do me a favor -

1. Go to Geno's East on Rush
2. Order the Meaty Legend
3. Wait 45 minutes because real Chicago pizza takes that long to make (don't worry, it's worth it)
4. Eat the best pizza ever made
5. Come back here and eat crow

Why would I want to go to Chicago for #4 when I can do that right here in Boston?

[Judge Roy Bean]

...
5. Come back here and eat crow

Crow I could eat; my cardiologist would kill me if I were to eat something like that pizza!

[The Observer]

Why would I want to go to Chicago for #4 when I can do that right here in Boston?

Okay, I get it, you are one of those sovereign pizza citizens that believe in those whacky theories about Chicago or New York pizzerias creating strawman pizzas, that you can redeem lawful pizzas in the North End by filing pepperoni Apostilles.