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Axium International Bankruptcy
I’m surprised that there has yet to be any discussion here about the the payroll company Axium International’s, bankruptcy and immediate move to Chapter 7 liquidation. It’s been reported that some in the entertainment community have been left holding Axium checks from accounts which have been frozen and therefore aren’t being honored by banks.
Three thoughts come to mind:
1) Who knew that there could actually be a benefit to some from the WGA strike? Writers protected from getting bad checks for work they didn’t get to do.
2) In a bankruptcy aren’t employees usually at the head of the line and routinely get 100% of monies owed? Do the affected individuals count as employees or just as business entities caught in the transaction? (In which case their recovery could be pennies on the dollar.)
3) Would it not be appropriate for some smart attorney to be assembling a “class” of those production employees caught up in this and moving rapidly to freeze assets, including perhaps those of Axium’s owners who may have unduly profited from the operation of the company which led to this bankruptcy?
But then again, what do I know. I’m not a lawyer. I certainly don’t have all the facts behind this and thankfully I’m not affected by this situation. Let’s hope that very few of the COW’s members are.
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3 Replies
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It was interesting to see that Entertainment Partners, another payroll company in Hollywood took out a full page ad in the trades to let everyone know that THEY are in good financial shape, and have no looming problems.
Mark
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Chapter 7 means that everything is gone and there is little chance of collecting anything. People could file a class action suite but the chance of any lawyer taking that case is slim.
Bad news for everyone. Unless … someone can prove that this was a corporate conspiracy as in Enron.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
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[Steve Wargo] “Unless … someone can prove that this was a corporate conspiracy as in Enron.”
Funny you should use that analogy. I heard a commentator on the radio call this situation “the Enron of Hollywood.” Having no inside information on this whatsoever, I suspect that the company was living off the float with money coming being used to pay bills coming due. So when the strike cut off the money coming in it’s curtains.
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