IEO files bankruptcy petition

We had no sooner written our article last week on the uncertain situation at Inland Empire Oilseeds, LLC, and sent our paper off to be printed when we received in the mail that same day notification from the United States Bankruptcy Court in Spokane that IEO had filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy on December 27, 2012. Our call to IEO general manager Joel Edmonds has not been returned.

We called the Odessa Union Warehouse on Friday, January 4, and asked to speak to Keith Bailey. As the manager of AgVentures, LLC and its member companies, the Odessa Union Warehouse and Reardan Grain Growers, Bailey has been involved in the Odessa biodiesel plant from its very beginnings. AgVentures, along with Reardan Seed, Greenstar, Michael Dunlap and Avista still own 25 percent of IEO.

Bailey was kind enough to call us back on Monday after meetings had kept him occupied all day Friday. Bailey said that 1138, LLC, the company initially brought in to manage IEO and provide venture capital, and which now owns 75 percent of IEO, was responding to an involuntary Chapter 11 Bankruptcy petition filed by a group of IEO’s creditors.

In response to this petition, IEO filed its own voluntary petition for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. Bailey said that these were facts that could be verified but that any other information he might provide would simply be his opinion. He said he would rather deal with facts than opinions.

Back in July, when Edmonds had contacted The Record with the news of the purchase of IEO by 1138, LLC and of plans to expand the plant’s ability to process canola from 80 to 400 tons per day, he appeared to be brimming with confidence and more than willing to share his happy news. Additional personnel would be required, he said, to meet the new processing goals. The expansion would not require any land purchases but would be done by adding equipment and personnel to existing production lines, he said.

Just six months later, most of the workforce was laid off a week before Christmas. What happened in the meantime? How did we go from major expansion to bankruptcy in so short a time period?

We asked Keith Bailey if he thought this was the end of IEO. He said he really did not think it was. More he would not say.

As one of IEO’s creditors, The Record has received official notification of a creditors’ meeting to be held in Spokane on January 22. Since that date falls on a Tuesday, it may not be possible for us to attend, but we would certainly like to do so. We will keep you posted to the best of our ability.