NW Territorial Mint seeks bankruptcy protection

[Silent_Bob]

http://www.seattletimes.com/business/nw-territorial-mint-seeks-bankruptcy-protection/

Northwest Territorial Mint, a Federal Way company that sells precious metals and produces medals and medallions, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Friday.

The move came a month after the company and its owner, Ross B. Hansen, were each hit with multimillion-dollar jury verdicts in a defamation and invasion of privacy lawsuit brought in Nevada by a Los Angeles businessman.

Todd Tracy, the company's bankruptcy attorney, could not be reached late Friday.

The company's filing says it has more than 200 unsecured creditors, and its assets and liabilities both exceed $10 million. Its biggest listed debts are a $7 million judgment in favor of the businessman, Bradley Steven Cohen, and a $5.5 million judgment in favor of his firm, Cohen Asset Management, both classified as disputed.

The defamation suit claimed Northwest Territorial Mint and Hansen created anonymous websites that compared Cohen to Bernard Madoff, the Wall Street broker convicted of a massive Ponzi scheme. The lawsuit claimed the animosity stemmed from litigation by an affiliate of Cohen's firm, which had been the mint's landlord at an Auburn warehouse.

The federal judge's order in the defamation case indicates the judgments against Northwest Territorial Mint and Hansen total $37 million.

[WithoutAPaddle]

West Coast Mint Files for Bankruptcy After Losing Defamation Suit
$38.3 million award is one of the largest Internet defamation verdicts
By Katy Stech
April 1, 2016 7:23 p.m. ET


Northwest Territorial Mint LLC put its coin-and-medallion-making operations into bankruptcy on Friday, facing a demand to pay part of a $38.3 million defamation award—one of the country's largest Internet defamation verdicts—to a Los Angeles businessman and his real-estate firm.

Officials for the mint, located near Seattle, listed the judgment owed to Bradley S. Cohen and to Cohen Asset Management Inc. as a "disputed" debt in bankruptcy court documents. A lawyer for the company couldn't be reached to explain how the filing will affect its operations, which make coins and commemorative medallions for the U.S. military and other customers.

The 200-worker company, based in the town of Federal Way south of Seattle, on its website calls itself the country's largest private mint with other minting facilities in Texas and Nevada and die-cutting and sculpting facility in Green Bay, Wis.

Earlier this year, a jury awarded Mr. Cohen and his company, the mint's former landlord, $38.3 million in his defamation suit against the mint and its owner, Ross Hansen. Northwest Territorial Mint is on the hook for $12.5 million of that amount.

Mr. Cohen sued Northwest Territorial Mint and Mr. Hansen, in August 2012 after discovering a now-defunct website called bradley-cohen.com that compared the Los Angeles businessman to disgraced Ponzi-scheme operator Bernard Madoff, court papers said. Mr. Cohen's lawyers rejected the comparison to Mr. Madoff and said Northwest Territorial Mint and Mr. Hansen created the website in retaliation for an earlier property dispute

Lawyers for Mr. Hansen and Northwest Territorial Mint have asked for a new trial. In defending the suit, they argued that the website published true information, that Mr. Cohen is a public figure and that the published information didn't cause harm or damages.

It is unclear how much Mr. Cohen and his firm will recover on the legal award. Robert Mitchell, a lawyer who represented Mr. Cohen in the defamation lawsuit, said the bankruptcy case will mean the company's finances will get close monitoring.

"We're encouraged it's in bankruptcy," Mr. Mitchell said Friday.

Under Mr. Hansen's leadership, Northwest Territorial Mint grew by purchasing other businesses. The company website also says it runs a retail store at U.S. Department of Defense headquarters in the Pentagon and lists affiliations with the U.S. Coast Guard, Discovery Channel, the National Rifle Association, the Boy Scouts of America and the International Association of Fire Fighters.

Northwest Territorial Mint's chapter 11 case has been assigned to Judge Christopher M. Alston of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Seattle.

[Russell Kanning]

I used to buy and sell from them.

[Mark D. Jacobsen]

damn. I purchased silver there before I lost it all in a horrible boating accident.

[Free libertarian]

damn. I purchased silver there before I lost it all in a horrible boating accident.

Sounds kind of Piratey.   

[Tom Sawyer]

damn. I purchased silver there before I lost it all in a horrible boating accident.

Sounds kind of Piratey.

you sir are one dang funny dude. (I almost posted my mistype that said "one dang funny dud")

Wow, a horrible boating accident... we were just down on the Cheaspeake bay and a friends tale of almost being washed out into the big water after his motor failed on his skiff was enough for me.

So, you lost your silver booty to the deep huh?

[Mark D. Jacobsen]

Like I said it was horrible.

[Jim Johnson]

I was told, 'all boats rise with the tide'.... lying bastards.

[Mark D. Jacobsen]

It's not like there is a conspiracy against sound $$ in the USSA.

[Dave Ridley]

That's sad... Ross Hansen answered the phone once when I called to order something!  And it was a weekend.   They were almost always slow to deliver however, slower than advertised.