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ORMOND BEACH – For decades, IPS Worldwide has been global in virtual anonymity from an indefinable office space at the corner of Clyde Morris Boulevard and Hand Avenue, unknown to most people, commuters at rush hour to the heads of chambers.
But now, the company is no longer under the radar.
In January, IPS filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11, initially listing assets below USD 50,000 and liabilities estimated at between USD 100 and USD 500 million. IPS owes a long list of creditors representing global brands such as Stanley Black & Decker, Alcoa and True Value Co., among a list of the 20 largest unsecured creditors, totaling $ 121.2 million.
Among these well-known brands, IPS must pay an unsecured claim of $ 41.6 million from Stanley Black & Decker Inc. In court documents, the firm's tooling firm's lawyers have stated that IPS "had embezzled, stolen or embezzled millions of dollars of funds belonging to Stanley. Black & Decker. "
As part of its activities, IPS processes invoices and payments to transport companies with money from customers who prefer not to deal directly with transport companies. In court documents, the company describes itself as "a freight and payment audit solutions company," with a recent annual business turnover of about $ 8 million.
Critics of the industry in which IPS operates invoke a system that manages to avoid regulation. Even Green Mountain Technology, a package-based expense management company based in Memphis, Tenn., Suggested that it would be helpful for shippers to take a closer look at how they use payment service providers and how these providers facilitate transactions.
"Payment providers like IPS are pooling advanced customer funds to pay for freight bills, but the recent bankruptcy filing reveals significant issues with respect to this practice," Green Mountain said. "Customers like Stanley Black & Decker have discovered that their money was not used as they thought."
Scott Spradley, Flagler Beach's lawyer representing IPS, told the News-Journal Monday that the company was working with US creditors, trustees and Justice lawyers to find out what had happened to the company's finances.
"My experience with the company itself is limited in time, but I did not see anything that could suggest malfeasance or theft," Spradley said. "Stanley has made these accusations without any facts and other creditors have copied the same language, but I have not seen anything that suggests anything of the sort."
Lawyers representing other creditors, including Arconic, Inc. ($ 16.9 million), True Value Co. ($ 6 million) and YRC Freight ($ 4.7 million) made no comments or comments. could not be achieved. John Ferguson, a lawyer at Cobb Cole in Daytona Beach, recalls working with IPS on his incorporation documents over twenty years ago with Palmetto Charter Services.
"This is a company that has represented many, many companies that have been in business for many years," said Ferguson. "At this point, it really does not have a place in the bankruptcy process. I can not talk about any of my work for them because of the solicitor-client privilege. "
Other business leaders in the region admitted to not knowing much about IPS Worldwide.
"They are not a member of the chamber, I have never heard of it," said Debbie Cotton, CEO of the Ormond Beach Chamber of Commerce. Similarly, representatives of the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce also did not know about IPS Worldwide and its activities in Ormond Beach.
This could change as the bankruptcy process unfolds.
At a hearing on Friday, Judge Karen Jennemann of the US Bankruptcy Court in Orlando granted the appointment of Maria M. Yip, an accountant in Miami, as a reviewer of Chapter 11 of the financial records. IPS Worldwide, whose head office is located in a building at Root Executive Park, 265, boul. Clyde Morris, in Ormond Beach. The findings of the examiner's investigation are expected to be presented in two weeks, Spradley said.
Spradley said that the leadership of IPS, including the company's president, William Davies, remained intact and that the company would continue to function as usual during the examiner's investigation. . According to the company's website, Davies founded IPS in 1998 and has since expanded its offices in seven countries in North America, Europe, Asia, India and India. Latin America. A phone message to Davies at the company's Ormond Beach office on Monday was not returned.
An IPS Worldwide office worker on Monday morning refused to open the door to a News Journal reporter, saying there was no one in the office to comment. A sign on a piece of paper the size of a notebook on one of the doors said: "Due to recent events at the national and global levels, access to the facilities of 39, IPS Worldwide will be limited to known employees and delivery people. "
At IPS, staff turnover at the company's finance department has complicated efforts to investigate the fate of the missing money, Spradley said.
"There has been a change in the status of employees in January and some people involved in finance are no longer there," Spradley said. "I'm not saying that's what happened with the money, but the absence of these employees makes it more difficult to go back and see what happened.
"Mr. Davies himself is doing everything in his power to help everyone discover what has happened, there will be an explanation, we are trying to get to the bottom of things now. "
Clayton Park, editor of News-Journal Business, contributed to this story.
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