You make a lot of negative assumptions about them.
I'd like to see some proof KL even went bankrupt. I'm not convinced it hasn't been misreported. (ETA: proof provided)
It would be hard to find an entrepreneur in AL's field, who hadn't been involved in lawsuits.
There is no proof he did anything incorrect with regard to DG and the patent.
ETA: I find her bankruptcy strange, but it may be irrelevant.
Hi AnneBrocklehurst... Very interested in reading your book... Will have to find some time here this weekend
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In response to your quote I completely agree about KL bankruptcy being odd... In fact I find the hype surrounding the Linknes's multiple bankruptcies extremely disconcerting. I can wrap my head around the Winter Petroleum bankruptcy and AL's issues with business finances/bankruptcy... It's not uncommon for a true entrepreneur to over-leverage and then get caught up owing monies to vendors (other business that have provided supplies/services to your business), creditors (credit cards in business name, bank loans) and even the government (business taxes previous years or GST remittances)... Basically if a business isn't paid for its services or the business doesn't have any work contracts, it can be very easy for bills to pile up and eventually lead to an inevitable bankruptcy.
The thing that has always struck me as odd is that these two very intelligent business people AL and KL could not have avoided bankruptcy... And I don't mean by managing money better... When you declare bankruptcy, whether business or personal, each person or business that is owed money ends up being SOL... Because if this, most companies and even most banks, will allow a negotiation of payback of some if the debt. Usually they will settle on whatever is realistic ... Such as payback of 20% of the debt, over time as cash becomes available.
A little know fact... In Calgary in the 1980s many of the downtown high-rises and tall, community rental apartment buildings, were going bankrupt... The buildings had costed far more than many of the developers had planned and now(1980s) the buildings weren't fully occupied by tenants and the developers still had mortgages outstanding on the buildings. Eventually the banks started coming after some of these developers... The thing is, the developers were not trying to avoid payments, they quite literally had nothing... All their investments were bunk and they couldn't collect enough leasehold income from tenants (because there weren't enough) to pay back the banks.
Banks are banks, they are NOT in the business of being property owners(in the sense that they will seize your assets - and then have to manage the assets- in a bankruptcy situation). Banks are actually very open to negotiation, but they need to get paid .... So they negotiated a slow payback of a portion of the debt, as the developers received monies.
In my past experience working with small business', even small companies, that are owed money, will settle for partial payback (in a bankruptcy situation). I believe there must have been complexities to the situation that we are not privy to, regarding the business bankruptcies.
In terms of personal bankruptcy things get even more interesting IMO. Typically, individuals will declare bankruptcy to avoid payment of credit card debt. There is actually a substantial amount of loopholes in legislation regarding consumer debt and many personal bankruptcies are extremely strategic. For example, many people don't know this but if you take out debt and then don't make a single payment in the debt for 7 years (you will have to declare bankruptcy and possibly live with friends or relatives) your debt will be wiped off the books and you will get to "keep" whatever you bought... When I worked for a major financial institution I saw this scam often. People would take out all these credit cards and purchase all this stuff and never make a single payment ever...
There are also many valid reason an individual may declare bankruptcy ... Such as getting involved in an investment with the understanding that you will be receiving monthly income from the investment... Then the investment goes bottoms up (maybe a new business that never got off its feet or a Ponzi scheme that stole your savings) and all of a sudden you don't have the monthly cash flow to pay your mortgage, car loans and credit cards.
In my opinion good people who declare personal bankruptcy only do it once. And KL only did it once. I'm sure it was humiliating for her and a major learning experience. It also may have been because of a divorce...we know JO was not AL bio daughter and KL and AL had been married for 20years...
I think, in our minds, we should keep separate the KL personal bankruptcy and the AL business bankruptcies.
