Treasure Island Creditors Miffed

(l-r) Tony Allenbrand, Kevin Hayes, and Nick Ward open
the meeting of local creditors of Treasure Island
Resort, which is now in receivership

Thursday, June 24, 2004

Creditors of the Treasure Island Resort, now in receivership, expressed their dissatisfaction with the Scotiabank’s handling of the hotel’s debts at a meeting at the Comfort Suites on Monday.

Roughly twenty-five creditors attended the gathering, hearing comments first from Tony Allenbrand of MTM Ltd, Kevin Hayes, representing Mike’s Ice, BBC, and Celebrations, and Nick Ward of Jacques Scott & Co Ltd.

“Scotiabank has drawn a veil around the process,” said Mr Ward of Jacques Scott & Co Ltd, “I wrote to the Bank on 26 May and have not heard back from them.”

Mr Allenbrand opened the meeting stating that friends in the financial world had told him that the local creditors needed to convene to pursue Scotiabank’s cold shoulder with a unified front. “I have been advised that we need to set up a committee of three to five people and then we must agree to let that committee pursue different options so that we potentially see the money that is owed to us,” he said.

The creditors quickly named Barbara Wiley of Vigoro Nursery to head the committee. “We would all like to see the matter resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. The Vigoro firm in particular is hurt by these non-payment of bills,” she said.

The creditors discussed the lack of information coming from Scotiabank, and noted that they could not even say with any certainty who the bank-appointed Receivers were. Mr Ward said he had written letters to Bruce John and Mark Parchment on 26 May, believing at the time these two men were the Receivers.

He said that recent media reports had confused the creditors, reporting that Jeff Coyne, a Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke University in North Carolina, was now the Receiver.

As a result of the information, misinformation, and speculation, the entire group reached an agreement to appoint the law firm of Broadhurst DaCosta to represent it going forward.

With the services of the law firm, the group indicated that it might soon decide to file a Twenty-One Day Notice of Liquidation in the Grand Court in an attempt to force the hand of the bank. Many said they felt this was their only means to get Scotiabank to be more forthcoming.

One major point of contention among the group focused on the Resort’s nightclub, The Oasis. Mr Allenbrand stated, “Most of us funded this nightclub which is now a major asset in the hands of the bank. They just walk in as the Receiver and take it away. They walked away with a $1,000,000 asset and we funded it.”

The locally financed nightclub was open for just two weeks before the bank assumed control.

In total, the local creditors are owed US$1,200,000 from Treasure Island Resort. In agreeing to retain the services of Broadhurst Dacosta, each individual present agreed to contribute five to ten percent of what they are owed, if payment is ultimately procured. Vigoro Nursery alone is owed US$51,000.

All in all, the list of local creditors includes more than eighty names. If the group is not satisfied with the final sale of the property, they also have the right to appeal against the sale, which would require Scotiabank to justify the bid it accepted.

Ken Thompson, of MTM Ltd, seemed to best express why he and others attended the creditors’ meeting and what the collective hopes were with the process. “I just want to know what’s going on with this thing and to make sure legal procedures are being followed,” he said, “I also want to know that if a sale goes through, the money the bank collects will include money for the creditors.”

“No one here is on witch-hunt. We want information,” concluded Mr Allenbrand.

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