Creditors Given OK to Foreclose on WA Biofuel Facility

- by Kristi Pihl, August 23, 2014, Tri City Herald

Some of Green Pow­er’s Tri-City cred­i­tors have received the green light to fore­close on the trou­bled bio­fu­el com­pa­ny’s unfin­ished Pas­co plant.

Franklin Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court Judge Cameron Mitchell recent­ly approved a request by the cred­i­tors to fore­close on the liens they hold against the com­pa­ny’s per­son­al property.

Mitchell also approved a pri­or­i­ty order for the cred­i­tors. A com­pa­ny called Pan­da Hold­ing, which request­ed the deci­sion, is first and sixth on the pri­or­i­ty list of those who have not been paid yet.

Jose Gon­za­lez, own­er of Amer­i­can Elec­tric of Rich­land, and James Oster­loh of West Rich­land, who was Green Pow­er’s for­mer chief engi­neer and own­er of Con­crete Struc­tures, formed Pan­da Hold­ing to pur­sue what Green Pow­er owes them.

Both have received court judg­ments for the debts owed by Green Pow­er. Green Pow­er owes Amer­i­can Elec­tric more than $1 mil­lion for elec­tric work on the unfin­ished Pas­co plant. Oster­loh says he’s owed $4.4 mil­lion, includ­ing interest.

In total, Green Pow­er still owes nine cred­i­tors $6.1 mil­lion, includ­ing inter­est, because of liens that were secured on the com­pa­ny’s per­son­al prop­er­ty, accord­ing to court documents.

Pan­da Hold­ing was approved to hold a sale of Green Pow­er’s per­son­al prop­er­ty and to cred­it bid its entire debt at the sale, accord­ing to court documents.

Green Pow­er fought the fore­clo­sure by fil­ing a fed­er­al bank­rupt­cy pro­tec­tion case, which stalled the pro­ceed­ings until the case was thrown out by a U.S. Bank­rupt­cy Court judge after the com­pa­ny failed to meet dead­lines to pro­vide cer­tain infor­ma­tion in June.

Mitchell shot down Green Pow­er’s attempt to claim that Pan­da Hold­ing was not a par­ty of inter­est in the case.

The Port of Pas­co received approval ear­li­er this year to evict Green Pow­er from its Big Pas­co Indus­tri­al Park. The com­pa­ny’s last lease end­ed on Dec. 31. But port offi­cials have been wait­ing for the fore­clo­sure decision.

The com­pa­ny’s unfin­ished plant has been stalled for more than six years after the state Depart­ment of Ecol­o­gy shut down con­struc­tion because the com­pa­ny lacked the nec­es­sary air qual­i­ty permits

Green Pow­er founder Michael Spitza­uer was fed­er­al­ly indict­ed in con­nec­tion with wire and bank fraud, aggra­vat­ed iden­ti­ty theft, mon­ey laun­der­ing, tax eva­sion and lying on a fed­er­al tax return. He has been in jail since December.

Alto­geth­er, Green Pow­er and Spitza­uer owe about $36 mil­lion, includ­ing inter­est, to about 40 cred­i­tors, accord­ing to court doc­u­ments. Most cred­i­tors do not have liens secur­ing their debt.

Spitza­uer is accused of defraud­ing sev­en alleged vic­tims of up to $7.6 mil­lion. His tri­al recent­ly was post­poned to April 13 after his attor­ney request­ed more time to prepare.

– Kristi Pihl: 509–582-1512; kpihl@tricityherald.com