A federal bankruptcy trustee has objected to Bulldog Reporter parent Sirius Information's plans to sell assets to a Canadian information company, claiming Sirius president Jim Sinkinson has a conflict as an interested party in the sale.

bulldogBulldog filed for bankruptcy in November, listing nearly $900K in debts. The company petitioned for permission to sell most of its remaining assets – around $135K worth – to Ontario-based media monitoring company MediaMiser, but bankruptcy trustee Tracy Hope Davis intervened Dec. 12, requesting the sale be denied by a federal bankruptcy court.

Davis outlined a handful of concerns, noting Sinkinson would get a $3K/month consulting contract with the buyer, which is also making payments to a Sinkinson-controlled company and currently paying him a consulting fee. She noted Bulldog sold $15K in customer lists and other intellectual property to MM a week before its bankruptcy filing.

The trustee said the sale process was not properly designed to woo competing bids and the pre-bankruptcy sale of assets might have "chilled" bidding from other potential buyers.

MM and Ragan Communications approached Sirius about a sale before its bankruptcy filing, according to the trustee.

Sirius president Jim Sinkinson filed a declaration in US Bankruptcy Court in California on Dec. 17, denying that he has a consulting agreement with MM. He said he and another former executive received only $2K from the buyer to research company records to gauge its financial performance and projections. He said a consulting agreement – "standard in these types of sales" -- with the buyer is contingent on the proposed sale.

Sinkinson also argued that Bulldog's announcement that it was shutting down, along with coverage in trade press like O'Dwyer's, made its financial condition widely known, even though putting the business up for sale was not a viable option.

Sinkinson also said an affiliate of the buyer is paying Sinkinson's sole proprietorship, Fired Up Marketing, to keep the Inside Health Media website up and running, but Sinkinson said the fee passes directly through his company to a single editor.

Consulted Turnaround Advisor

Sinkinson said in the filing that he consulted a turnaround advisor to see whether the business could be saved amid a "precipitous drop in revenue from a number of the company's projects culminating in August 2014." The advisor required the company to raise $50K to continue operations for another month, which Sinkinson said was not possible.

Sinkinson said he and his wife/business partner Cynthia Levitas borrowed from their personal line of credit to loan the company sufficient funds to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Creditors Listed

Creditors of Bulldog listed in its bankruptcy filing include Bank of America is biggest with $132,743; Crown Plaza Hotels and Resorts of NYC for $130,762; Bernstein Family Trust for $127,980; Chase and Chase Card Services for $29,146; PR Newswire for $57,000; Bulldog reporter Richard Carufel of Wilmington, N.C., for $15,537; Wells Fargo Business Direct for $16,142; Thomas Kuracina of Carson City, N.V., $63,985, and dozens of writers mostly for $100.

The Wall Street Journal Nov. 26 covered the "trail of unpaid journalists" left in Bulldog's wake.