Hotel Online
News for the Hospitality Executive

.

advertisement
 
 

Yellowstone Club Founder Tim Blixseth Speaks Out; Alleges that His Ex-wife
Hosted Lavish Parties and Flew Her Housekeeper on Private Jets
While Stiffing Creditors
.

BUTTE, Mont., June 15, 2009 - California socialite Edra Blixseth, who has racked up personal debts of at least $157 million, will appear before a federal bankruptcy judge in Butte, Montana, tomorrow (June 16) to fight a court-ordered liquidation of her assets. Yellowstone Club founder and entrepreneur Tim Blixseth, a creditor in the case, urges the Judge to stick with his plan to liquidate his ex-wife's estate, with the use of an unbiased, third-party trustee.

"My ex-wife has a decades-long record of mismanaging money, and I hope the Bankruptcy Court will liquidate her assets so creditors can finally recoup some of their losses," Tim Blixseth said. "She has been recklessly spending money as if it grows on trees. She once boasted in a court filing that she could go through $50,000 a month of extra spending money for 1,500 years, and still not be happy."

In a new legal "Declaration" filed with the bankruptcy court in Montana, Blixseth alleges that his ex-wife squandered tens of millions of dollars that contributed to her massive bankruptcy.

RECKLESS SPENDING

In the Declaration, Blixseth explains:

  • How his ex-wife spent $90,000 on an extravagant "divorce celebration party" complete with invitations in the shape of a parking meter that read, "Your time has expired" and a photo of Tim Blixseth's face. Guests at the party also were encouraged to whack a pinata, made to look like Blixseth, which contained gold-wrapped chocolate coins. Many local merchants who provided goods for the party were never paid.
  • How she frequently spent $15,000 per roundtrip flight to shuttle her housekeeper on a private Gulfstream jet, from Palm Springs to Seattle, to clean her condo, and would also use the jet just to bring her dogs to her.
  • How she borrowed $13 million in four days from two banks to support her lifestyle, while refusing to pay even the smallest of her bills, resulting in some small mom-and-pop independent business owners going broke.
MOUNTING LEGAL PROBLEMS

Edra Blixseth's behavior has resulted in mounting legal problems. Last week, Wachovia Bank accused her in court filings of "fraud" and using "false pretenses" to obtain $8 million in loans from the bank. In February, a federal judge in Colorado issued a warrant for her arrest following her failure to pay back a $13 million loan and for ignoring the court's ruling. And late last month, the federal bankruptcy judge in Montana concluded that she had abused the bankruptcy process for her own benefit. The judge converted her Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to a much stricter Chapter 7 liquidation, in which an independent trustee will liquidate her assets to ensure payment for her many creditors.

In the legal Declaration, Tim Blixseth for the first time also details his ex-wife's efforts to demonize him (she's quoted in an email as saying "get all fingers pointing at Tim") in an attempt to gain control of the Yellowstone Club, the exclusive Montana resort he founded in 1999.

"I've sat back patiently and quietly for almost two years, while watching a well-organized effort to discredit me and to take control of Yellowstone Club," Blixseth said. "But now I am laying out the story, backed up by hard-hitting facts, of my ex-wife's out-of-control spending habits and her trail of deceit. It's a tragic example of what greed, ego and compulsive behavior can do to a person. She even borrowed against our children's funds, in violation of an Agreement designed to protect our children, just so she could obtain a loan for her own personal needs."

.
Contact:

SOURCE Tim Blixseth

.
.
Also See: The Millionaires-only Yellowstone Club Private Ski and Golf Resort is Bankrupt with $399 million in Debts; May Not Open Ski Resort this Winter / November 2008
Dieter Huckestein Appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Yellowstone Club World, LLC. / March 2006
.

 

.


To search Hotel Online data base of News and Trends Go to Hotel.OnlineSearch
Home | Welcome| Hospitality News | Classifieds| One-on-One |
Viewpoint Forum | Industry Resources | Press Releases
Please contact Hotel.Onlinewith your comments and suggestions.