We are not going to provide a direct link to this filing because a) it is easy enough to locate through one of our earlier posts regarding the civil suit, and b) Ken "Whit" Whitman isn't alone on that filing, he's essentially the +1 to his ex-wife's filing. A cursory glance quickly shows that she's the only one making any real (reported) money and....well......she was married to Ken "Whit" Whitman, hasn't she suffered enough? Ok, that is a joke in bad taste, but seriously...it's Kenny we're after, not his family.
It is rather interesting to note that this filing comes only eighteen (18!) days before the beginning of the funding for Knights of the Dinner Table: Live Action Series (KoDT:LAS). The planning for this Kickstarter goes back at least until May 2013, so at least on the surface it appears that the timing of this Chapter 7 filing is deliberate. The timing is such that during Ken "Whit" Whitman's initial funding period the Trustee in his Chapter 7 filing will have the creditor meeting (between December 11th and December 30th) and his debts would most likely have been wiped clean sometime between March and April 2014.
When you realize that Ken "Whit" Whitman had his slate wiped clean before getting at least $170k*, it really makes you wonder where all that money went. It doesn't appear to have gone towards fulfillment, well at least any significant portion anyway.
This news of the Chapter 7 filing is also significant because it has been alleged (and forwarded by several readers) that one of Ken "Whit" Whitman's many fallacies is that he can just file Chapter 7 bankruptcy again. The thing is this was his personal filing in 2013 and since d20 Entertainment isn't a legal entity all this....stuff we report about here on NAD....is all on him as an individual and he cannot file Chapter 7 again until at least the end of 2020. It actually makes us wonder if d20 Entertainment wasn't actually filed as a business entity to insulate Ken "Whit" Whitman's incoming funds from his bankruptcy.
*The amount that Ken "Whit" Whitman has taken the public for is unknown as he did a lot of activity off the books:
$ 159,385.00 Kickstarters (90% of $177,095.00)
$ ???????.00 KoDT 20 Years of Covers Books (softcover, hardcover, leatherbound)
$ ???????.00 Traveller Resin Ships
$ ???????.00 HackMaster PDFs
$ ???????.00 HackMaster Hardcover Books
$ ???????.00 Pimping Jolly Blackburn out (drawings, paintings, running games, convention appearances)
$ ???????.00 Selling "Premiere" Seating at Showings and After-Party Invites
Some important points about his Chapter 7 filing plus filing for Chapter 7 again.
ReplyDelete1: You are correct that Whitman would have to wait seven years from 2013 to file Chapter 7 again; so Whitman's claims that he would 'just file again' he could do but would have to wait. I didn't reply to Whitman about the time deadline in the hope that he would try to file again before the deadline because then it would get dismissed.
2: Whitman can't discharge the Kickstarter debts if the trustee rules that they are the result of a fraud. Whitman would also run a great risk in trying to make them part of a Chapter 7 filing since then, as a creditor, I could file to have the court rule the Kickstarter as part of a ponzi scheme and the debts would not be dischargable, plus Whitman runs the risk of criminal charges being filed by the trustee for bankruptcy fraud.
3: The process for a Chapter 7 filing is that on the day of the filing, everything becomes part of the bankruptcy estate and all of the assets and all of the liabilities are totaled up. Then the assets are distributed according to the rules with the debtor keeping assets that the can claim as exempt, then anything not exempt is paid to the creditors in order of priority. Income and assets acquired after the filing date usually do not become part of the bankruptcy estate, except for certain situations, such as a judgement from a case that was started pre filing, or an inheritance within a certain time of the filing date.
3: It does make one wonder where all the money went, since once the Chapter 7 was filed for, Whitman no longer had to pay any debt, and got the 170K with all of his dischargable debt gone, except for monthly living expenses, all the money could go to the projects. In the early days I did consider that Whitman must have a gambling and/or substance abuse problem, since I could not see how that kind of money could simply just get 'spent' but there is NO indication or evidence, so far, that Whitman has either of those problems, especially since I would have expected to see someone mention it over the years.
My theory is that Whitman essentially ran a ponzi scheme where money from new projects was used to work on old projects, with Whitman going over budget on everything, making it necessary to keep raising more and more money to keep the scam going.
4: Filing d20 entertainment as an LLC would have made sense to insulate Whitman, but he never did that and I still hold the name reservation.
For what its worth, KW has not been convicted nor (as far as I know) has he been deposed. I only want my stuff. I want my Traveller stuff.
ReplyDeleteWhy is this entry dated Nov. 20, 2013?
ReplyDelete"2013.11.20 Ken "Whit" Whitman Files for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy