It was a busy week at the courthouse for construction magnate Jon Rudolph.
Equipment previously owned by his company, Golden Hill Ventures Limited, will be sold in a public auction, a Yukon court decided Thursday.
The company, which has been an industry stalwart for more than 20 years, went into bankruptcy last December when it failed to pay $7 million to its largest creditor, GE Financing Canada. At the time, Rudolph vehemently denied in a letter that his company was going bankrupt.
Last month, the receiver, Deloitte & Touche, got permission to sell a Bell helicopter that had been owned by Golden Hill.
And now several dozen off-road trucks, fuel trucks, wheel loaders and tractors are going to be sold by Deloitte, along with fuel tanks, a mining drill and two ATCO portable trailers.
There are other items in the bankruptcy file that Golden Hill and Rudolph are meant to hand over to GE.
A large yacht, the Northern Romance, was supposed to have its marine mortgage transferred to GE from Rudolph. According to GE’s loan contract, Rudolph made a deal in May 2009 to give GE the marine mortgage on the boat. As of the bankruptcy filing in December, the boat had not been transferred.
Rudolph has ignored repeated interview requests in the last two months.
Lawyers for both Golden Hill and GE refused comment on Thursday.
But both sides sought a court order sealing the Deloitte report on the equipment from public view. The report would make it difficult for Deloitte to get the maximum profits from the sale of the items, they argued. The judge granted the order.
And there was more bad news for Rudolph this week.
The Business Development Bank of Canada is seeking a court order declaring that Golden Hill defaulted on a $1,100,000 loan.
According to a contract signed in March 2008, Rudolph secured the loan with two lots in the Whitehorse area.
Golden Hill owes the bank $1,065,644, according to recently filed documents.
On the bright side, Rudolph fought off an appeal from another creditor this week.
Rudolph bought Ross Mining Limited from Norman Ross in 2005 as a foothold in the mining business. The mine wasn’t prosperous and Rudolph didn’t pay the $3.4 million Ross expected from the deal. Norman Ross took Rudolph to court. A Yukon court decided in August 2009 that Rudolph must pay Ross $3.5 million.
But Rudolph also got his company, Golden Hill Ventures, involved in Ross Mining Limited. Because of the work Golden Hill did at the Ross mine, Golden Hill filed a $4,713,543 lien against Ross Mining.
During the court proceedings last year, Norman Ross tried to have the lien dismissed. But the judge allowed it to be kept.
Norman Ross appealed and the case was heard in May. On Monday, an appeals judge in Vancouver dismissed the appeal and allowed Golden Hill’s lien against Ross Mining to remain.
Rudolph is also currently repaying debts after declaring personal bankruptcy in January. In total, Rudolph owes $12 million to creditors, including the Canada Revenue Agency. He reached an agreement in January with his creditors to pay them back. The creditors will receive the equivalent of five cents for every dollar they loaned him in unsecured debt.
Contact James Munson at
jamesm@yukon-news.com