America’s largest Chevrolet dealer, the now-defunct Bill Heard Enterprises, today told a bankruptcy court it is in debt nearly $240 million to multiple creditors. Bill Heard Enterprises said it owes $229 million to GMAC, BMW Financial, and JP Morgan, which financed its vast inventory. Another $7 million is owed to various creditors, while $3.2 million is owed in sales taxes.
As reported on Wednesday, Bill Heard closed all of its stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas, leaving about 2,700 workers. Most workers had no advanced notice they’d be out of a job. As a result, two employees have filed a class action lawsuit claiming wrongful termination, according to the Associated Press.
Founded in 1919, the Heard dealer network has long focused on big stores with big volume, hence the slogan “Mr. Big Volume.” In recent years, the company became known for brokering loans for people with bad credit histories.
In many cases, Heard Enterprises was able to obtain financing for subprime customers willing to pay outrageous interest rates — as high as 28 percent. Many of these obscene loans were issued by National Car Credit — a subprime lender in Columbus. Its CEO? Bill Heard Jr, of course.
“His business model was really out of step for the times,” Mark Rikess, a consultant to major car dealers told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Heard “certainly targeted subprime buyers,” Rikess said. “Even without subprime buyers, he would have had a problem.”
The collapse of subprime lending — “the final nail in his coffin.”
In its bankruptcy filing, the company said each of its 14 dealerships was losing between $2 million to $5 million a month. The culprit? Slowing demand and a lack of available credit.
10/01, 10:21 PM
posted by:
A4
looks like bill heard is gonna be drivin an aveo to his new job as fry cook
10/01, 10:22 PM
posted by:
beatusmongous
And one of those is my workplace!
Good luck getting any piece of that money. If I were Bill, I’d head to Madagascar or something.
10/01, 10:33 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
Why would this come as a shock to anyone? The guy was just following the same path as the mothership.
10/01, 11:08 PM
posted by:
deutschetouring1337
Don’t forget it was only a year ago JPMorgan, Citibank Corp, & Bank of America were bailed out and also introduced the MLEC plan with the Gov’t approval to prevent all of this within the financial industry and look at whats happend.
10/01, 11:51 PM
posted by:
TOZO
The burning $100 bill photo says it all.
10/02, 12:54 AM
posted by:
howsmydriving
Good riddance to another POS.
10/02, 12:55 AM
posted by:
DrFill
JPMorgan owes no one anything, unlike some mega-corporations
An ass-kicking machine, buddy
You might want to add some truth to your posts
Just as a change of pace
DrFill
10/02, 9:57 AM
posted by:
Z06ified
DrFill – your comment isn’t even close to true. deutschetouring’s post is wrong too, but yours isn’t much better.
10/02, 3:08 PM
posted by:
autonut
Those of you concerned about Bill Heard’s well being – don’t be. He will not drive Aveo either. It is corporation that has debt, not him personally. Most of executives live long and happy lives after burning millions (or trillions) of someone else’s dollars.
10/02, 5:54 PM
posted by:
athens
28% interest = GREED
10/02, 6:22 PM
posted by:
deutschetouring1337
I don’t call JPMorgans backing of Enron and helping them hide debt in their balance sheets being wrong, SEC nailed them for it, investment into 3 trillion of unsecured Asian debt market, They are the top underwriters of debt next the Deutschebank and management has made bad choices for being exposed to the Derivative market. AIG if it hadn’t been bought out would have left everyone open for failure due to the unregulation of using Derivative investing. JP Morgan, & Morgan Stanley as recent as early 07 late 06 were coming up with MORE investment vehicles tied to Derivatives. The reason AIG failed was using Derivatives off subprime lending and involved with the lending itself. Did you ever notice the Financial banks involved with MLEC are the ones buying up all the other banks? Hmmm….check the history for yourself.