Creditors file claims against GNP estate

BANGOR – At least 850 former employees and suppliers of Great Northern Paper Inc. scurried to file formal claims of money the company owes them to meet a Monday evening deadline knowing that they’ll probably never be paid any of the estimated $100 million total.

In the meantime, Lambert Bedard, the company’s former president and co-owner, and his son’s consulting firm, Bilodard Inc. of Quebec last week resubmitted bills for consulting services they performed starting Jan. 9, the date Bedard placed Great Northern into bankruptcy protection.

Bedard – filing under the name Inexcon Maine, which he co-owns and which was Great Northern’s former parent company – and Bilodard stated in court documents that according to bankruptcy law they are entitled to be paid more than $58,000 in consulting fees.

This time around, Bilodard’s bill is about $73,000 smaller than the $92,500 bill the firm submitted in May and withdrew in July. Martin Bedard, Bilodard’s co-owner and Lambert Bedard’s son, reduced his consulting fees by $18,000 and eliminated his pursuit of a $54,000 fee for early termination of contract. His new bill is $20,348.

Lambert Bedard is seeking the same $37,776 he wanted to be paid when he submitted his first bill in May. Like his son, he had withdrawn the request in July.

Nicholas Walsh, a Portland attorney representing Lambert Bedard, said last week that bankruptcy judges in the past have ordered the payments of consulting fees or administrative expenses to people or businesses whose services still were needed after a bankruptcy filing. He said Bedard and Bilodard both had contracts that weren’t broken after Jan. 9, and they continued to work to try to sell Great Northern’s two mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket.

A bankruptcy court hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. Oct. 28.

But whether there will be any money to pay Bedard or Bilodard is doubtful. Any money coming into Great Northern’s bankrupt estate these days is going toward paying the paper company’s primary creditor, Boeing Capital Corp. of Long Beach, Calif.

Great Northern’s assets were sold late August in a $103 million deal, but only about $63 million was actual cash. The money was to pay creditors with liens on the assets, including Boeing and Cianbro Corp. of Pittsfield. Boeing’s balance due is estimated at $10 million to $12 million.

Bedard and Bilodard’s administrative expenses are classified as unsecured claims that are given priority over most other unsecured claims, but only after secured claims are paid.

Bangor attorney Gary Growe, who is trustee of the bankrupt estate, said Monday that anyone who has filed a claim should not be surprised if they do not receive any payment. The line of people wanting to be paid is too long, he said.

“It’s not possible to estimate whether there will be any money for claims other than secured claims,” Growe said. “The likelihood of any non-priority unsecured creditors [being paid], that likelihood is extremely small. I appreciate their dilemma, but I have no other way to address it under bankruptcy code.”