Meola Files Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

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Tracey:
YOu would write to the NJ State Attorney General's office. Reference Tom Meola personally, and all of his known businesses by nam, that you are aware of.
If you are a potential creditor, you can contact the US Bankruptcy court, for the district serving NJ. (Sorry, I will try to locate a case # and exact address for you. The court will then send you a Bankruptcy creditor form, which you complete and return. YOu will then be put on the creditors list.

YOu can also direct same correspondence that you sent to the NJ state attorney general's office to the Bankruptcy judge. Give as much detail as possible, and highlight YOUR OWN INDIVIDUAL PROBLEM/ISSUE. (YOu are writing as an "interested party".

As soon as I have exact addresses, I will post. It may take a couple of days to track this down. We have to get them to "connect the dots"!!

Regards,
Cheryl
 
CHERYL BAKIN said:
Tracey:
YOu would write to the NJ State Attorney General's office. Reference Tom Meola personally, and all of his known businesses by nam, that you are aware of.
If you are a potential creditor, you can contact the US Bankruptcy court, for the district serving NJ. (Sorry, I will try to locate a case # and exact address for you. The court will then send you a Bankruptcy creditor form, which you complete and return. YOu will then be put on the creditors list.

YOu can also direct same correspondence that you sent to the NJ state attorney general's office to the Bankruptcy judge. Give as much detail as possible, and highlight YOUR OWN INDIVIDUAL PROBLEM/ISSUE. (YOu are writing as an "interested party".
Click to expand...
Cheryl, thank you! Problem is, I am not directly affected - other than the fact that he gives my choice in industry a bad name.

This being the case, still write to the same offices? I want to participate, in anything that helps limit the damage he personally has done; I just don't know if a personal opinion is relevant if it's not from a "victim"

tracy
 
Relevance

Hi Tracy,

Relevance depends I think on who's evaluating the merit of an opinion.
In this case, as so many are effected by deceptive practices, I'd venture to say that any well worded professional opinion would be deemed relevant by some standard. Not just from financially defrauded victims but from victims of an industry that has been raped, pillaged, beaten and left by the wayside by entreprenurial wizards that know how to play the system and beat us and the government.
If not directly relevant to the entire Meola picture, then relevant to the widespread deceptive practices that must come under governmental scrutiny if our government chooses to remember that they are elected to uphold the law and protect the people.

Deception must be controlled and regulated at any cost, and the message must be heard loud and clear, in every state, if a difference is to be made.

As always just a humble opinion.:hammer:

As stated before, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Lots of brilliant minds here at FC so I would expect some pretty intense letters to materialize during this fiasco.

So, enough with that, how've ya been ?
 
Wider Group of Florists

Couldn't agree more Cathy

SAF, Teleflora, FTD and 1800 and the rest of the players should also be brought to the table to take a position on this very critical issue.
Many say they will not, however, many also think that if they do not rally to the side of their PAYING MEMBERS, their standing in the eyes of floral professionals will diminish at an accellerated rate.
Food for thought.

So in true form, ManorMan asks all those that either read or report on what is written in these posts, to secure the official opinions of our valued wire services on the Meola scandal.
If they are not willing to step up to the plate the message will be clear.


Me:spin
 
More information on the above mess

After some research last night & today, here's the information I promised:

Court: US Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey
Martin Luther King Jr Federal Building
50 Walnut Street
Newark, NJ 07102
phone # 973-645-4764 or 877-239-2547
website: www:njb.uscourts.gov

Trustee: Joseph J. Newman
Judge: Donald J. Steckroth

Case # 07-21760-DHS

First Meeting of the Creditors: September 17, 2007 @ 9:30 am -
Newark, NJ
Companies in bankruptcy covered by this claim: Preferred Florist Network (PFN), TTP Inc and Lower Forty Gardens, Inc. (We all know he has many other companies, but these 3 are now in chapter 7).

To File a claim with the Bankruptcy court: Go the the above website, and then click on bankruptcy forms. Once you get the forms page up, Go to form B-10 (Proof of Claim). I believe you can fill this form in on the computer. However, YOU WILL WANT TO PRINT IT OUT AND MAIL IT BY CERTIFIED MAIL TO THE COURT. Be sure to attach copies of all invoices, etc or other documentation. (Since we are not attorneys we cannot file electronically). Be sure to keep a copy for your files. (You should check off "goods provided" in the category of why you are filing -- this possibly may move you up a little higher on the distribution chain.) Claims are then handled usually in this order: first - Federal & State governments owed; employee wages, benefits, pensions, secured creditors (mortgage holders), and then finally , unsecured creditors.

It does NOT require an attorney to file a claim. It is a simple 1 page piece of paper. If you are confused, please call me or PM me, and I will help you thru it. (I have had to make these types of filings several times in the last 20 years.) It Does get you on the creditor list, and you are kept up to date on all the proceedings. And it does give you the opportunity to OBJECT to a proposed payout/settlement, should one ever come.

DO NOT GIVE UP!!!! File a claim, Get on the list!! It does not take long to fill out 1 piece of paper.....The court needs to know how bad this really is, and I'm not sure that Meola really knows.

Possible Fraud reporting: In the left-hand bar of the US Bankruptcy forms page, there is a bar for the "United States Trustee Program". Click here & read first. This is a 1 page explanation of how to report to the Department of Justice any suspected FRAUD that you have direct knowledge of. (ie: are there any other companies or places that the Trustee should be looking to for assets. Are there any other companies he should know about? did he buy a boat or carry diamonds instead of cash??) Information is on there for the direct reporting of any suspected fruad, or information that you might have. I urge you to report, if you have any Direct information. (This is where direct knowledge from the Missouri class action suit could come into play, with knowledge of all if his companies.

(Just a note -- a bottling company here was recently forced into bankruptcy. It was an innocent report to the US Trustee regarding the purchase of DIAMONDS by the owner that apparently sent them digging deeply into the finances, and brought the house of cards down.)

Meola's filing for Chapter 7 means that these companies will be LIQUIDATED. The liquidation, however, Could mean that his Other companies, or another OG, will buy the phones numbers and any other assets. That's why it is important for EVERYONE who has any direct knowledge to Flood the Trustee (Hi's like the court administrative manager of this case) With all information regarding Meola and his companies.


I'm sorry, but I do not know how to attach the direct links to the above website. (I'm not very computer literate at times.).

Yes, Cathy, I am an SAF member. I would hope that SAF and other "Industry Interested parties" will take this information and widely distribute it. We all need to be involved in this.

I'm still digging.....but I hope this helps get everyone started.

Regards,
Cheryl
 
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State of NJ information

As requested, here is the information for the State of New Jersey, Attorney General's office:

Name: New Jersey Office of the Attorney General
Consumer Affairs Division
124 Halsey St
Newark, NJ 07102
phone: na
fax # 973-273-8035
email: [email protected]

You can also file a complaint electronically by using the following steps:
go to: www.nj.gov/oag/dci/index.html
select: division of consumer affairs at this home page (left side)
then select: complaint forms (middle of screen)
this takes you to another screen.
scroll down until you see: OCP COMPLAINT FORM. select this.
You will now be an an Online complaint form, which you can fill in & submit electronically. Be sure to keep acopy of complaint of the form before you send it off. Also, be sure to mention that PFN has filed for Bankruptcy (reference case # from above post), so that the State Attorney General will talk to the US Bankruptcy Trustee also.

YOu are filing with the Consumer Affairs Division because this is were it most logically seems to fit in the NJ scheme of things. If AG thinks that Fraud has been committed, he will bring onboard the Criminal Division people for further investigation.

So, Start those Cards & letters going folks!!! They need to hear from anyone who has a complaint!!

Cheryl
 
Just another thought...

We also need to get the Press involved.....

Is there anyone in the Newark, NJ area that can talk to the Press about this situation, and point them to the Missouri lawsuit, etc?? The more "noise" that is generated the less likely that this will be swept under the rug, and that he will be able to "quietly" close out these three companies with the Bankruptcy court.

We need to get a "investigative reporter" (Dateline, Chris Hanson comes to mind) that can begin digging, and begin writing or airing reports prior to the Sept hearing.

Manorman, any connections??

Cheryl
 
Working on it in New York

As one little fish in a really big pond, I want to commend your efforts and dedication Cheryl. Great job, great information and great advice.
Hopefully everyone will write, call and fax.

Have a meeting with one of our local legislators this morning and will be discussing this all in detail.
Want to get him to put the whole media thing in motion and I think he'll work with us.
Also asked him the other day to make the contacts to his allies in the Senate and House to get this thing snowballing.

TO LONG ISLAND AND NEW YORK MEMBERS, ( and quite honestly.....
to all members throughout the US and across the pond.... )

TAKE A FEW MINUTES TODAY AND CALL, fax or write THE MEDIA, PRESS, LOCAL STATIONS AND LETS WORK TOGETHER TO PUT PRESSURE ON THEM ALL. THEY SHOULD ALL JUMP ON THE STORY AS THEY WILL BE DOING A TREMENDOUS PUBLIC SERVICE FOR CONSUMERS.
If enough people, hound enough people, the fallout could far exceed anyones expectations, create attention to many other problem areas, and bring some very serious credible attention to Real Florists !!!!!!

To Flowers Insolita in Huntington :

You've been doing great work from what I see and here.
See what noise you can make to the west and we'll cover the eastern part of Long Island.
( Just a suggestion )
 
Let's just hope that Mr. Wizard is in for some unexpected surprises.
 
christi_dellarobbia said:
Just read the new posting by SAF about the latest with Meola...

check the link:
http://www.safnow.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6318&Itemid=0

Unbelievable what people can get away with! No money left? He was taking money from us left and right! Got a letter of official bankruptcy in the mail a few days ago.

Just upsetting! :hammer:
Click to expand...

Having been the recent recipeint of a bankrupty letter from a fellow florist and then his ex-wife, , I really think it is a shame that they ( and he has) can turn around and re-open another business using a different name and continue to make money yet stiff those that helped them out . I doubt that Meola will stop unless he is behind bars, and that probably won't happen either. My friend the 'FLORIST", and I use that term lightly continues to sell flowers, burned 2 ws, wholesalers and what all..still selling blooms tho....laws need to be changed
Sher
 
This story about Meola's bankruptcy required a login to read yesterday. Incase it does again, I'm posting it here FYI.

Floral Company Files Chapter 7 as Suits Grow
By Martin C. Daks - 8/27/2007

RANDOLPH


For more than a decade Randolph-based florist Thomas Meola took out phone listings in communities across the nation in a bid to convince local residents they were ordering goods from a nearby business. The ruse brought in up to $5 million a year to his New Jersey-based companies: TTP Inc., Preferred Florist Network and Lower Forty Gardens Inc.

But Meola’s strategy wilted when 22 states, including New Jersey, responded by passing laws prohibiting so-called fictitious commercial phone numbers.

After legal defense costs and a series of costly legal settlements drove his companies to file Chapter 7 recently, the federal Bankruptcy Court in Newark last week appointed a trustee to liquidate Meola’s companies’ operations and try to salvage some funds for his many creditors.

Meola also faces a possible class-action suit and other litigation from florists, customers and state law enforcement officials upset by what they call misleading practices.

“The company has been sued in various states for allegedly engaging in unfair business practices,” says Meola’s attorney Joseph L. Schwartz, a partner with Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland, Perretti in Morristown who focuses on bankruptcy cases. “The significant litigation expenses, including legal defense fees and the cost of settlements, were just too much.”

Given the history of Meola’s companies, the bankruptcy filings did not surprise Jennifer Sparks, vice president of marketing at the Society of American Florists, a national trade group based in Alexandria, Va.
“In the past few months we received many complaints from our member florists [that] fulfilled orders for Meola’s companies but then did not get paid,” she says. “That led us to think he was considering a bankruptcy filing.”

Sparks also says that most of the states that passed statutes prohibiting fictitious phone numbers did so in response to Meola’s activities.
According to Pierce v. TTP Inc., a proposed class-action suit filed in Missouri, Meola’s company placed phone listings “designed to create the false impression that a listing is for a particular bona fide Missouri business.” A customer dialing the local number would be unwittingly forwarded to Meola’s New Jersey call center, which would take the order and fill it using a local florist who would get a slice of the order’s fee.

The catch was that an order handled by TTP would typically cost 25 percent more than a similar order handled by a local florist from start to finish, according to the Pierce complaint. It seeks damages on behalf of all Missouri customers who allegedly were overcharged as a result of TTP’s activities.

Another putative class-action suit filed in Missouri, Gladstone Florist, LLC v. TTP, Inc., claims Missouri florists lost business because TTP took out phone listings, including one under the name of “Gladstone Florist,” that appeared just before a “legitimate” Missouri business like Gladstone Florist LLC.

Lower Forty Gardens Inc., a TTP-related company, listed 183 names—including “Gladstone Florist” and “Florist in Gladstone”—in Missouri alone, according to the Newark court documents. The company maintained other fictitious local listings across the country.

A number of state attorneys general went after Meola’s companies for allegedly misrepresenting themselves as local businesses. In 2005, for example, Flowers With Gifted Elegance, one of the trade names used by Meola’s companies, paid $10,000 to the state of Virginia and “agreed to answer truthfully and accurately any and all questions from Virginia consumers relating to the geographic location of its business,” according to a spokesman for the attorney general’s office there.

Virginia statutes prohibit a business from using “an assumed or fictitious name in the conduct of its business to intentionally misrepresent the geographic origin or location of any such person or entity.”

The Better Business Bureau also has a beef with Flowers With Gifted Elegance. According to the New Jersey BBB Web site, the company has an “unsatisfactory record with the BBB because of unanswered complaints” including service, product, delivery and pricing issues.

“Mr. Meola believes he did nothing wrong,” says Riker, Danzig attorney Schwartz, referring to the cases against his client.

Schwartz says Meola considered filing for Chapter 11 reorganization instead of liquidation, “but the costs just did not make economic sense.”
Under a Chapter 11 filing, a debtor attempts to reduce or eliminate outstanding debt by reaching agreements with creditors. It can be a long, drawn-out process during which legal fees may continue to mount. In contrast, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy may be less involved.

But there may not be much money left for creditors in this case.
The bankruptcy filings indicate Meola’s businesses generated $5 million of revenue in 2005 and again in 2006, and $2.2 million in 2007, but a review of the financial statements of each company shows a lot of debt and few assets, primarily intercompany receivables due from related businesses.

TTP’s balance sheet, for example, lists no assets and about $1.19 million in debt and other liabilities that are mostly unsecured, or not backed by assets that can be seized by a creditor. Preferred Florist Network shows $738,155 in assets, but $737,358 of that is money due from TTP, which has no listed assets. The records for Lower Forty Gardens reflect no assets, and $356,035 of liabilities, again mostly unsecured.

“This is a very involved bankruptcy, much more so than I expected,” says Joseph Newman, who was appointed as trustee for the three companies and just met with Meola last Tuesday. “We have activity in foreign states, and not much in the way of hard assets [like cash]. Plus, there are a lot of lawsuits. This is just the beginning of the liquidation process.”

E-mail to [email protected]
Click to expand...
 
this guy is such pond scum. It really grinds me when they even call him a "florist" instead of what he really is...
 
Meola Wants to Sell Local Names & Phone Numbers

According to a report from Star-Ledger, Meola is requesting the bankruptcy court allow him to sell his phony florist names and phone numbers.
Thomas Meola estimated he could raise about $500,000 by selling ownership of hundreds of trade names in New Jersey and Florida. His companies, Preferred Florist Network, TTP and Lower Forty Gardens, used names such as Florist of Tampa or Bedminster Flowers and local phone numbers to generate business.

During testimony at a creditor's meeting in Newark yesterday, Meola estimated the value of the trade names for just two states at about $500,000, or roughly half of annual sales that came from those names. Meola did not discuss the potential value of trade names the companies own in many other states.

Anthony Sodono III, an attor ney for bankruptcy trustee Joseph Newman, said the trustee wants to hire Meola to try to sell the names. The companies have nearly $2.4 million in liabilities, according to bankruptcy court documents.
Click to expand...
(Emphasis mine). I'm totally dismayed that the sale of the numbers are considered the chosen route to recoup loses. Which dOG will step up and buy them?

Is it possible to get state AGs like Virginia's, Delaware's & Florida's to petition the court to disband the numbers entirely or demand they be sold only to real local flower shops?

*sigh*
 
:wallhead:
Ok, someone help me out here, Is this not like a drug dealer getting busted for selling drugs, then telling the cops, "hey I need to sell off the rest of these here drugs to pay my court costs".? The phoney numbers, names and addresses are the evidence.
 
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Well if he sells off one of these names to a company outside of the state it is listed in..aren't we right back in the same mess just with another company breaking the same laws.. and enabled to do so by the trustee of the bankruptcy court?? of course maybe he expects to be able to sell the name/phone # back to the florist that really is that name in that city??

wouldn't that be the height of stupidity.. a florist buying back a bogus listing.. that would be going away anyway for lack of payment ...
 
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