Hill Wine Co: The Pink Bunny Of Wine Financial Disasters

IMPORTANT NOTE: Hill Family Estate as well as William Hill Estate Winery, are not affiliated with, nor owned by the same families as The Hill Wine Company in this and previous bankruptcy articles.

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Like the pink Eveready bunny of bankrupt wine companies, the Hill Wine Company soap opera just keeps on going and going and going, all across the judicial stage of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California.

While most of Hill Wine Co’s assets have been sold, seized or repossessed (coverage in links, below), a side battle has been simmering off to the side for months over a $300,000 Umpqua Bank loan to the wine company that Jeffry Hill’s uncle, Terry Otten, personally guaranteed.

The side battle, known as an “adversary proceeding” so provoked the ire of Chief Judge Alan Jaroslovsky, that he essentially threw the case out of his court.

On September 18, Jaroslovsky issued a memorandum saying that the adversary proceeding had no justification for being in his bankruptcy court, had confused the proceedings and had drawn “the Chapter 7 Trustee into an improper proceeding.”

For her part, Bankruptcy Trustee Lois I. Brady filed a lengthy, detailed cross-complaint accusing Otten and his wife, Jane, of being accomplices with Jeffry Hill in a host of misdeeds, diversion of funds, self-dealing and a number of the illegalities already alleged by the federal government in this article: TTB Carpet Bombs Hill Wine Co With Felony Allegations.

At the core, the Trustee charged that the Ottens helped Jeffry Hill to fraudulently obtain millions in loans that they knew at the time could never be repaid.

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ALSO IN THIS ARTICLE

The full text of the following sections is available to Wine Executive News subscribers:

• UNCLE OTTEN AND THE UMPQUA LOAN

• TRUSTEE CHARGES MASSIVE CREDIT FRAUD COLLUSION

• SCHEME ALLEGED TO DIVERT LOAN CASH

• WINERY LEASE KEY TO BOGUS LOAN APPLICATIONS

• MORE OTTEN LOANS TO KEEP THINGS MOVING

• OTTEN TAKES BIG CASH OUT

• IMPROPER, ILLEGAL OPERATIONS FOR MORE MONEY

• TRUSTEE THROWS BOOK AT HILLS & OTTENS

• FINAL DEADLINE LOOMING

PREVIOUS WINE INDUSTRY INSIGHT COVERAGE

• Hill Wine Debacle: Napa Valley Cab: $2.93/Bottle, $5/Gal

• Hill Wine Co Bankruptcy Now In Chapt 7 Liquidation

• Hill Wine Co – Fireworks Likely In Today’s Liquidation Hearing

• Hill Wine Co Rushing Toward Liquidation

• Security Of Grower Liens Uncertain In Hill Winery Bankruptcy

• TTB Carpet Bombs Hill Wine Co With Felony Allegations

• Confused Hill Wine Co Chapter 11 Stumbles Forward

• Hill Wine Co Bankruptcy Snares Big Names, Big Time

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