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by BETTER FARMING STAFF
Ontario’s former, self-named pigeon king must face his creditors in Kitchener this month.
BDO Canada Limited, the trustee of Arlan Galbraith’s personal estate, will hold a first meeting of creditors on Jan. 27 at Bingemans conference centre. The meeting begins at 1 p.m. Galbraith’s certificate of filing a bankruptcy order states that he must attend the meeting.
The Superior Court of Justice in Bankruptcy and Insolvency in London declared Galbraith personally bankrupt in December. Galbraith, abandoned a contest the personal bankruptcy and did not attend the Dec. 16 court proceedings.
The bankruptcy came more than a year and a half after Galbraith placed his Waterloo-based Pigeon King International Inc., in bankruptcy. BDO is also the company’s bankruptcy trustee.
The PKI breeding scheme offered pigeon breeding pairs for as much as $500 and bought back offspring for up to $50 each. Its June 2008 collapse left hundreds of pigeon breeders on both sides of the border with thousands of worthless birds and debts of nearly $39 million.
James Wiersma of Fisherville, Ontario, one of four creditor-appointed inspectors in the PKI company bankruptcy, initiated personal bankruptcy proceedings against Galbraith in November 2008.
Documents posted on BDO’s website list Galbraith’s personal assets to be $376,150 — with his property in Cochrane, Ontario being listed as the primary asset, valued at $300,000 — and indicate he owes former Canadian pigeon breeders more than $573,000 and U.S. breeders more than $122,000.
This is Galbraith’s second personal bankruptcy. In 1981 he received an unconditional discharge following the collapse of a meat business he ran with his brother. At that time he listed assets of $470,000 and liabilities of $410,000. BF
PKI summary
Comments
the farm in cochrane asseted at 300,000 what a joke no body up there has any money and are all out of work ,they will be luck to get 150,000 for it, i feel bad for the poeple he owes money to it is not going to happen. when the house gets listed will be intersting to see what they are asking at 300,000 it will never get sold not worth that much money to any one.
he claimes wages for 3 years of 800,000.00 per year, where did all of this go to.
Will former investors be notified in more detail regarding this meeting? I just happened upon your story by chance and otherwise would not have known about it. Keep up the good work Better Farming in your coverage of Pigeon King.
Over the weekend, I read the article in the Ontario Farmer stating that investors with Arlan Gailbraith himself had reason to be optimistic about recovering some of their money. These people that had contracts with Arlan Gailbraith stand to share in found money as a result of his personal declaration of bankrupcty. The people who signed contracts with the subsequent company Pigeon King Inc. have no hope of recovering any money because the company declared bankrupcty and no money was left over (with that company). WHAT A SLAP IN THE FACE for the investors of Pigeon King. Almost all investors with Arlan Gailbraith got some of their initial investment back if not all. Some investors with Pigeon kIng of which I am one got NOTHING. Not one red cent. Why should initial investors get a share in found money and the later investors (whose money supported early investors) get nothing.If BDO reads this website, DO THE RIGHT THING!!! Ensure that any found money is shared equitably!!!!
Get real people, by the time the lawyers, government and mostly the Bankruptcy people (IE. BDO) get through it is HIGHLY unlikely there will be much left. Maybe a measly few grand (that is IF they can sell the Cochrane place for a decent price) to divide among a few hundred.
There are updates on the website of BDO also, under www.bdo.ca for everyones info. Better Farming is doing a very good job as stated before in messages
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