If any of you have been following the saga of the closing of Grass Roots America, this might be very interesting to you.

They just filed for bankruptcy. But the parent company is still going strong.

Read more here:

[www.mysteryshoppermagazine.com]

For those who are owed money, I think the best course of action is to contact the MSPA. Thoughts?

Would it be up to the judge presiding over the bankruptcy to distribute payments?

The bankruptcy is a Chapter 7 filing in the Florida Southern Bankruptcy Court.

Chapter 7 means they intend to liquidate the company. The court proceedings will sell off all the assets and pay creditors as far as the money goes. The company will not survive as occurs with a Chapter 11 or 13 bankruptcy.

Creditors (this means shoppers that are owed money) need to file a claim with the court and hope something comes your way. For that procedure, try calling the court or looking online.

Below is some information about the case and contact numbers. Good luck.


Case number
1:15-bk-17385
Judge
Robert A Mark
Filed
Apr 23, 2015
Type
voluntary

The website for the court is here, [www.flsb.uscourts.gov]
COURT LOCATIONS

CLERK OF COURT - Joseph Falzone

MIAMI
C. Clyde Atkins United States Courthouse
301 North Miami Avenue, Room 150
Miami, FL 33128
(305) 714-1800
Hours 8:30a.m. - 4:00p.m.

FT. LAUDERDALE
United States Courthouse
299 East Broward Blvd., Room 112
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301
(954) 769-5700
Hours 8:30a.m. - 4:00p.m.

WEST PALM BEACH
Flagler Waterview Building
1515 North Flagler Drive
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
(561) 514-4100
Hours 8:30a.m. - 4:00p.m.





You might also try Grassroots' lawyer identified as
Matthew Mazur, Jr
Matthew Mazur, P.A.
2655 LeJeune Road
Suite 500
Coral Gables, FL 33134
3054663328
Fax : 7863476042
Email: mmazurjr@mazur-law.com

Also identified as trustee is as follows. I not sure of their role in the proceedings.

Trustee

Joel L Tabas
14 NE 1 Ave PH
Miami, FL 33132
305-375-8171
Represented By

Gary M Freedman, Esq
14 NE 1 Ave PH
Miami, FL 33132
(305) 375-8171
Fax : 305-381-7708
Email: gfreedman@tabasfreedman.com
Joshua D Silver
14 NE 1 Ave PH
Miami, FL 33132
305-375-8171
Email: jsilver@tabasfreedman.com
Joel L Tabas, Esq
14 NE 1 Ave PH
Miami, FL 33132
(305) 375-8171
Email: jtabas@tabasfreedman.com



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/2015 12:06AM by vlade5394.

Alas, as a shopper, you are an unsecured creditor (there are different classes of creditors). As an unsercured creditor, you are way down on the priority list when it comes to getting any money from the court after liquidation of the business. Unfortunately, this is not the first time that an MSC has gone bankrupt or disappeared and shoppers have lost money. Any money you actually expended can be claimed as a business expense. My understanding is that fees that you did not collect can not be deducted anywhere (my understanding is that a bad debt requires that you transfer money to the person/company first, and then they don't repay it). If they paid you on a pre-paid card and they took the money back or otherwise made it unavailable, then it might be a bad debt. But anything you can deduct only softens the blow since it is a deduction against revenue and is worth 25% or whatever your marginal tax rate happens to be for Tax Year 2015.

Some of you have felt sorry for their employees who were not getting paid. If they had employees, they are much higher in priority, and in many states, they were required to escrow a month or two of salary. Of course, they might not have done that. It is hard to enforce (no one is watching until it is too late). The Florida Wage and Hour Board (or whatever it is called there, hopefully Florida has seen fit to have one) will fight on their behalf. No one will fight on behalf of mystery shoppers who are independent contractors, and we are individually owed paltry sums compared to the unsecured creditors who will be hiring lawyers to try to get a piece of the liquidation proceeds.

Still, you should each file a claim with court. If you don't you will get nothing. If you do, you might get something. Having the court recognize that you are owed a certain amount as fees may even make them deductible against revenue, but one of the tax cognoscenti (like Dspeakes) will need to offer advice about this.

Wow. They have $14.5 million in debt. But, it is great to know the shoppers can file a claim as creditors and get their money back

Just because you file a claim does not mean you will get your money. There is a very strong chance shoopers will get nothing or a reduced payment. If everyone that filed a claim could get paid there would be no reason for liquidation.

@bgriffin wrote:

Just because you file a claim does not mean you will get your money. There is a very strong chance shoopers will get nothing or a reduced payment. If everyone that filed a claim could get paid there would be no reason for liquidation.

I should have said "might" get their money back

I am also owed a gift card from (name removed) for $50 and saw that this company is no longer in service. It doesnt seem fair that they can just not pay you for work that you did!

Mod note: linking an MSC with its client is a breach of Forum rules.

I just sent an email to the Europe office. Will let you know what response I receive.

I have and MSPA is refusing to help us. I should post Leah's last email to me. Really disappointing

to be a member of the mspa they should require msc's to hold
a certain amount of funds in escrow in the event something like
this happens. the fact that only their u.s. subsidary is filing
for bankruptcy makes it even worse. Sounds like they ran
a ponzischeme of sorts and sent all their bad debt over
to their u.s. division. Similar but different to what ceasars/harrahs
has tried to do with their bankruptcy filing by transferring assets around.

I contacted (the MSC's client) corporate, gave them my info and how much they owed me. Maybe they will honor me as a customer, who knows.

Mod note: it is a breach of Forum rules to show a link betweeh an MSC and its clients