To the people at Mount Olympus Waters: Hang tight - the $2 Triad America owes you is on its way.
Federal Express, you won't get your $31 overnight, but you will get it next week.And Sheraton, there's that small matter of the $8 million Triad promised you. Will $2.5 million see you through the holidays?
The day Triad creditors have been waiting for is here at last. Triad trustee R. Todd Neilson sat down at his desk Tuesday afternoon and signed 70 checks totaling $5 million.
The checks represent the first disbursement of nearly $32 million Neilson will eventually give to creditors of the bankrupt Triad America Corp.
The check to Sheraton was the largest in Tuesday's bundle, the one to Mount Olympus Waters the smallest.
The checks represent a payment of roughly 16 cents on the dollar to unsecured creditors with court-approved claims against the Triad estate, Neilson said.
The checks are dated Nov. 10 and won't be mailed until then. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John H. Allen signed an order Monday approving disbursement of the funds,
but law allows a 10-day grace period for appeals. After 10 days, the order is final and cannot be appealed, Neilson said.
He plans to send a second group of checks totaling at least $5 million to creditors some time in December.
During his 15 months as trustee of the Triad estate, Neilson has recovered about $45 million for creditors. His biggest coup was the $32 million Adnan Khashoggi gave him a year ago.
Neilson has already disbursed nearly $12 million in cash and several million dollars in property to secured creditors, he said.
Tuesday's disbursement is the first payment to unsecured creditors. Those creditors will eventually receive between 50 and 70 cents for every dollar the court recognizes as a legitimate claim against the Triad estate.
Creditors still have claims totaling $75 million against Triad. Neilson and his attorneys will evaluate those claims in the next two months, deciding which ones they consider valid and which ones they will contest.
Neilson is holding back the last $21 million in the estate until the court decides how much of the $75 million in claims are valid.
That final $21 million should be disbursed sometime in 1990. If the court rules on the validity of the claims the way Neilson thinks it might, "creditors may get as much as 70 cents on the dollar," he said.
Neilson recently filed $28 million in suits against several banks and businesses that he believes received inappropriate payments from the Triad estate while it was insolvent. The suits ask for the money to be returned.