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Thomas H. Casey was appointed in 1993 to the U.S. Trustee panel of bankruptcy trustees, Santa Ana Division, Central District of California. He has administered thousands of cases and has operated a wide variety of businesses since his appointment.
Thomas
H. Casey has served as bankruptcy trustee in several notable cases including
but not limited to the following:
In March, 2008, In re ANF DEER
CREEK, LLC, filed a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition. Shortly thereafter, the case was
converted from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7. At the time of the conversion, Thomas
Casey was appointed as Trustee to this operating case.The primary asset in this case was a 330 unit apartment complex located in Las Vegas, Nevada, consisting of eight (8) two-story buildings and two (2) three-story buildings ("Property"). The Property was in horrendous condition when the
Trustee was appointed. Many necessary expenditures had not been made to repair the property.
The secured lender was owed approximately $19.6 million and the Property was
overencumbered. After long and difficult negotiations with the secured lender,
a cash collateral carve out agreement was successfully negotiated between
the lender and the Trustee. During this time, the Trustee entered into a purchase
agreement with a proposed buyer. After obtaining Court approval of the use
of the secured lender's cash collateral as well as a sale of the Property
on an emergency basis, the Trustee operated the Property for approximately
three months pending close of escrow. During that time, the Trustee encountered
and resolved numerous health and safety violations. The Trustee commenced
evictions proceedings for tenants who had been residing at the Property rent-free
for months, worked with vendors to continue to supply services, and demanded
and obtained an additional property manager. The Trustee continually worked
with the property management company to improve their financial reporting
to provide a more accurate picture of the financial condition of the Property.
Despite the adverse circumstances, the Trustee successfully closed escrow
on the Property for $19.1 million on July 2, 2008.
In July, 2006, Thomas H. Casey was appointed as Trustee to the case of In
re WILLIAM T. HAYS, JR., a workers compensation attorney. The Debtor had scheduled
as assets of the estate, his residence and his workers compensation law practice
as well as certain accounts receivables. The Trustee expended a significant
amount of time reconstructing the Debtor's finances by reviewing the Debtor's
case files, tax returns, business and banking information as well as other
financial documents. The Trustee marketed and liquidated the Debtor’s residence and collected the receivables from the Debtor’s workers compensation law firm. The Trustee also filed a Complaint under 11 U.S.C. §727 against the Debtor
for, among other things, failure to keep and preserve records from which the
Debtor's financial condition could be ascertained. After discovery and prior
to trial, the Debtor stipulated to waive his bankruptcy discharge.
Thomas H. Casey was appointed as Trustee in the case of In re JAMES BERRY
in April, 2006. The Trustee worked closely with the Federal Trade Commission
("FTC") in this case, allowing for a successful sale of the Debtor's
residence for $2.3 million and the sale of the Debtor's 2000 Porsche Carrera,
which had been seized by the FTC. The Trustee obtained a turnover order of
the residence authorizing the use of the U.S. Marshals against Mr. Berry due
to his conduct and vandalism of the residence. The Trustee filed a Complaint
to Deny Discharge Pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 727(a)(2)(B); §727(a)(3),
§727(a)(4), §727(a)(5) and §727(a)(7) against the Debtor and
was successful in obtaining a judgment against the Debtor denying the Debtor
his discharge.
Thomas H. Casey was appointed trustee of Voxel, Inc. in August 1998. The only asset of Voxel, Inc. was medical holographic imaging intellectual property which was featured in an October, 1998 issue of Life Magazine as one of the medical miracles of the 21st Century. At the time of his trustee appointment the business operations of Voxel had ceased, all employees had been terminated, and the Voxel bank accounts held approximately $30,000. Thomas H. Casey obtained post-petition financing to restart business operations, rehired key employees and eventually sold the assets of Voxel, Inc. for $3.1 Million. He also recently obtained a $1.5 Million settlement from Defendant Wireless.NetCom. Mr. Casey made a distribution to unsecured creditors of over 60%.
Thomas H. Casey was appointed bankruptcy trustee of the Valley Business Center and La Palma East Partnership in August, 1997. At the time of Mr. Casey's trustee appointment, one of the partners of the Valley Business Center and La Palma East Partnership, individual James Hood, was serving a sentence in a San Diego penitentiary for murder. While the filed bankruptcy pleadings indicated the real property assets of the Valley Business Center and La Palma East Partnership were over encumbered, and had no value for the estate. Mr. Casey recently sold the two retail shopping centers for the total amount of $5 Million and paid all creditors in full.
In November of 1999 Mr. Casey was appointed Chapter 11 Trustee of the estate of AVK Silkscreen and Graphics, Inc., SA99-11031RA. AVK Silkscreen and Graphics Inc. was in the business of providing silkscreen printing on finished garments. Upon the appointment of Mr. Casey as Chapter 11 Trustee, Silkscreen Graphics had incurred post-petition liabilities of approximately $70,000 consisting of $46,000 in payroll taxes, $20,000 in general unsecured payables and $4,200 in secured debt. AVK Silkscreen’s general bank account was overdrawn and monthly sales had dwindled to $5,893. During his administration as Chapter 11 Trustee, AVK Silkscreen became current on all of its post-petition debts, increased monthly sales to approximately $200,000 and accrued $152,000 in cash. To reduce administrative expenses Mr. Casey did not employ general counsel. Instead, Mr. Casey rewrote AVK Silkscreen’s disclosure statement and plan of reorganization and in October of 2000 he obtained an order confirming the plan of reorganization. Monthly dividends to general, unsecured creditors commenced in December of 2000.
Mr. Casey was appointed Chapter 7 Trustee of the estate of KWP on October 5, 1999. The principal asset of KWP, Inc. was the spa and salon known as Belleza Salon & Spa. Upon the appointment of the Trustee the Belleza spa and salon had cash on hand of $12,000. Mr. Casey operated the Belleza spa and salon for 10 months and and filed his Final Report & Account on October 6, 2000 paying a 100% dividend to creditors.
A bankruptcy estate may own only a partial interest in real property. As Trustee, Thomas H. Casey has been able, through negotiations and litigation, to sell the real property as a whole, distribute the other party's interest in real property to them and proceed to distribute the estate's proportional interest to the creditors of the estate. In the case of In re JOSE MANUEL MONTALVA, Case No. SA 04-14253 RA, Thomas H. Casey, as Trustee, obtained the consent of the Debtor's ex-wife and co-owner to sell an apartment duplex jointly owned by the Debtor and his ex-wife and he negotiated the avoidance of the ex-wife's liens against the Debtor's portion of the real property. After the real property was sold, the creditors of the estate were paid in full and the Debtor received payment of the surplus proceeds of the sale. In the case of In re ANASTASIA HENSMAN, Case No. SA 04-11194 JR, Thomas H. Casey, as Trustee, filed an adversary proceeding against the co-owner of real property captioned THOMAS H. CASEY v. JOSHUA AUTH, Adv. No. SA 04-01348 JR, wherein Thomas H. Casey sought an order determine the parties proportional interest in the real property and authority to sell the real property as a whole. After Thomas H. Casey obtained an order granting his motion for partial summary judgment, the Defendant consented to the sale of the real property as a whole and agreed to accept only a small portion of the real property as opposed to a 50% interest that he original asserted. Again, after the real property was sold and the Defendant was paid his proportional interest, the creditors of the estate were paid in full and the Debtor received a payment of the surplus cash.