Golden Glory files petition for FEG/K1 to declare bankruptcy

[keithlewis]

Golden Glory has filed a petition in Japan to have FEG/K1 declared bankrupt‏

http://miruhon.net/news/2012/04/fegk1.html


Interview with Bas Boon by Tadashi Tanaka the japanese journalist who broke the story in 2006 in the Japanese magazine Shukan Gendai (Weekly Gendai) containing allegations that the Pride Fighting Championships, once the largest mixed martial arts organization in the world, was actually owned by the Yakuza, Japanese organized crime. Pride shows were dropped by Fuji TV, a major national broadcast network in Japan. Pride eventually went under".

On April 5th Tokyo time, Mr. Tanikawa issued a press release regarding the establishment of a new K-1 by K-1 Global Holdings as well as his resignation from K-1 FEG. I will summarize what he said and point out some grave errors of fact he has made. To recap the facts:



1. Golden Glory has filed a petition in Japan to have FEG declared bankrupt

2. The petition was filed by us on March 14, 2012 in the Tokyo District Court

3. FEG is no longer financially sound, and is unable to pay its creditors, including KOI (Knockout Investments, N.V.), which is owed in excess of $1 Million. Including other parties who are also owed money by FEG the amount may exceed $30 million.

4. Despite repeated promises to pay, Mr. Tanikawa of FEG stated in writing on Feb. 9, 2012 that it has released its employees and has no funds to pay KOI.

5. Golden Glory and its fighters have suffered damages resulting from FEG’s failure to pay

6. Golden Glory has filed this petition to seek the Court’s protection to find and secure any assets of FEG which should be used to repay its creditors

7. A company called EMCOM Holdings issued an announcement dated Jan.31, 2012 that it had acquired a Hong Kong registered company called K-1 Global Holdings and had funded this company to take over the loans made by a Japanese company called Barbizon connected to Kazuyoshi Ishii. Barbizon had security for its loans to FEG, this security was over the trademarks of K-1 (owned by Ishii) and the historical K-1 fight footage (owned by FEG): http://www.hd.emcom.jp/en/pdf/20120131_002.pdf

8. As a creditor of FEG, Golden Glory is concerned that some transactions will drain FEG of its remaining assets and goodwill and leave the creditors with nothing. We hope that this bankruptcy proceeding will also lead to an opportunity to shed light on the parties and what is really going on with the K-1 brand. We just want to get our athletes paid what they are owed by K-1.


We suspect the original intention for K-1/FEG was to not pay us, so all the fighters would quit and not be under the management of Golden Glory or It's showtime anymore.

When we recently launched the new Glory with the backing of our investors, we offered Simon Rutz the opportunity to work with us and also offered a deal for his fighters. Simon took our offer and went to the majority Owner of EMCOM, Mr. Gunil “Mike” Kim in Japan to get more money. Now I am glad he did as Showtime/Rutz are facing the same problem as K-1 faces in Japan, they can not have an event in their home country of Holland anymore: http://www.fansofk1.com/article?aID=3832

Suspicions of criminal involvement under the Dutch the BIBOP law put a stop to the events of It’s Showtime in Holland. The irony is that the same people who did not pay us are still behind the new K-1 structure they made today! If the court brings out all the facts, don’t be surprised to see that Mr. Kazuyoshi Ishii is still a major shareholder in the overall organization alongside EMCOM, and may still control the international rights to K-1.

It will be interesting to see how the court will handle FEG’s assets changing hands not long before I filed the bankruptcy lawsuit. Everybody can smell rotten fish here.

We have filed a petition for bankruptcy of FEG/K-1 and that’s why Mr. Tanikawa made this announcement: http://feg-jp.com/en/news/2012/0405_release_01.html

You will hear a lot of this in the press in the near future. The K-1/FEG management are the ones who have created a staggering debt and worst of all, left the kickboxing athletes without pay, while apparently managing to benefit themselves. It’s going to be tough going for K-1 and it will be interesting to see what kind of sponsors or TV broadcasters will want to be associated with anybody dealing with K-1 or Its Showtime.

The most tragic aspect of this is that there were many incredibly talented athletes, production companies, venues, and many other suppliers who were making an honest living providing services to K-1.

Tanikawa’s latest press release states that I am trying to hurt and destroy K-1, but the truth is absolutely the opposite. We were trying to rescue it and they already destroyed the brand themselves. I have no grudge with Simon Rutz. if we did we would never have considered working with him.

With that and the constant lying and false promises, here some more examples http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/10/16/2 ... s-showtime



Below link got removed from liverkick.com

http://liverkick.com/index.php?option=c ... =36:k-1how



Here is one from China:

http://www.yaomingmania.com/forum/viewt ... 56abbf24d5



It’s funny how in court Mr. Ishii claimed he had nothing to do with the fighting branch anymore but in China I witnessed with my own eyes a huge press conference were they announced 60 % for Mr. Bruno Wu and 40% for Mr. Ishii in a joint venture. Mr. Wu apparently did some more research and pulled out of this venture.

Tanikawa’s claim that Simon Rutz supports K-1 is almost as ridiculous, check out this link where Showtime is threatening to sue K-1: http://teamtakeover.forum-express.com/t ... sueing-feg .They made a deal to keep the Its Showtime fighters cheap and agreed to pay only 50% in the form of a signing bonus for old debt to Showtime fighters owed by K1.

Simon then made a deal for himself, the Madrid event recently announced by the ‘K1 production team” originally was scheduled to be labeled Its Showtime, but now has changed into a k-1 event. I am sure that because Showtime cannot organize in Holland anymore in the major cities, Showtime made a deal with Gunil "Mike" Kim (who Simon hated first, Kim made Simon looked like a fool when the “last 16” Grand Prix in China was cancelled in 2011,with the so- called reason of visa problems).

Their new plan is apparently to run K-1 events in Holland (under the management of Simon's/Showtime team and run Showtime in Japan under the management of old K-1 and Mr. Kim) this way they hope to avoid the problems with bad press and possible government scrutiny as they hope to renew the TV contracts under a new face.

What continues to amaze us here at Glory is the amazing philosophy (would some people call this greed?) demonstrated by the K-1 group. When we started paying our athletes using some of the new money from our investor group, Mr. Ishii told us we should not pay fighters, as that was a stupid move. Yes, you heard this right: it was STUPID TO PAY FIGHTERS, according to him. Their plan was apparently not to pay the fighters for a very long time so they would leave their management and they would then made new cheap contracts with the fighters and pay them a lot less. Mr. Ishii, Tanikawa and Kim were very angry to learn that the new investor group recognized the worth of the fighters and started signed them to exclusive contracts.

I had enough of their miss-truths and deception lies and came with my own investors and have launched the Glory brand globally. We have signed Albert Kraus, Petrosyan, Le Banner, Peter Aerts the whole Golden Glory team and others. Tanikawa even mentioned this in his press release as if we had acted improperly: sure these K-1 fighters made a living for a long time with K-1, but K-1 does not own them and certainly K-1 do not have any rights or claims when they do not pay fighters their outstanding debt for over 15 months! Then somebody comes and pays 100% or close to 100% of the outstanding amounts in the form of a new signing bonuses to these incredible athletes How does this make me the guy who is trying to ruin K-1, according Tanikawa?

It’s like a slapstick movie -- when the petition for bankruptcy was filled it took Tanikawa less than one day to leave the sinking ship and make his announcement.

The next weeks will be really interesting to see all the excuses made by "former" K-1 employees and executives. The funny thing is that many fighters are still being approached by Tanikawa even today to sign with K-1 Global Holdings owned by EMCOM. The personal assistant of Tanikawa works now for Mr. Kim. Mr. Ishii and Mr. Kim have companies in Hong Kong. Is the plan to have the trademarks of K-1 parked there?

In 2005, I started a lawsuit with Miro Mijatovic because of Pride and other problems, now history repeats itself and its K-1/FEG who did not pay their outstanding debt and I filed a petition for bankruptcy.

By the way, on April 12th Tokyo time, EMCOM Holdings press released that Mr. Ryouji Ueno stepped down as President and Mr. Hakmin Kim is back as President. We wonder this announcement could be direct result of the petition Koi/Golden Glory filed for bankruptcy and signing many top fighters to the new glory show.

I am incredibly proud and excited about the new developments with Glory. We have first class backers who are behind us. We have already staged a successful event in Moscow a few weeks ago that was broadcast live in 10 countries and over 100 countries tape delay. Our shows are now available live around the world on the internet in high quality HD. www.gloryworldseries.com We have another event coming up on 26 May this year in Sweden, a “first 16” in the 70kg weight class with three top-end superfights.

We’ll be announcing the calendar for the rest of the year soon, and you can expect some groundbreaking innovations, amazing fighters, and glamorous locations from Glory that will shape and re-define the world of standup kickboxing. Our investors have made a huge commitment; our team involves some of the brightest talents in sports, kickboxing, media, and entertainment. Fighters that have appeared in our first event have been paid their fees and prize money in record time. All this adds up to an extremely bright future for Glory, for the athletes who make it possible, and for the fans around the world that make our sport the most exciting and fastest growing in the world.

Glory is committed to creating exciting entertainment through a well-managed organization. Frankly, it’s about time!

[broncofan]

Well it obvious that someone is lying and how is K-1 holding the event in Madrid if they have no cash?

I was hoping to see Glory, It's Showtime & K-1 succeed this year for the sport and the fighters but if they don't clean this fucking mess up it is only going to suck.

[ArmyofDarkness]

http://liverkick.com/

There has been a lot of talk over the last few years of FEG's financial problems, obviously the biggest being the scandal that erupted and led to the hiatus and sale of K-1. Caught in the crossfire of the whole ordeal was Golden Glory's Bas Boon, who is owed somewhere in the realm of $2 million by FEG and attempted to outright purchase K-1 before EMCOM purchased the rights to K-1 and formed K-1 Global Holdings. In a new interview with legendary Japanese journalist Tadashi Tanaka, Boon discusses the proceedings in Japan, as well as his suspicions over the current K-1 brand.

"At 5 pm on May 7, the Tokyo District Court issued an order declaring FEG bankrupt, and commenced proceedings to wind up the company. The court ruled that FEG is insolvent and has appointed a trustee to administer all outstanding debts of the company.

We estimate that FEG’s debts exceed $30 Million; Golden Glory is owed nearly $2 million, all of which is debts to fighters and trainers. The real tragedy is for the many incredibly talented athletes, production companies, venues, and other suppliers who were making an honest living providing services to K1.

As a creditor of FEG, Golden Glory hopes that this bankruptcy proceeding will also lead to an opportunity to shed light on the parties responsible for the company’s mismanagement and reveal what is really going on with the K-1 brand. We are especially concerned that some transactions will drain FEG of its remaining assets and goodwill and leave the creditors with nothing. It does cost a lot of money but we are confident that with the administrator from the court we will find assets from FEG/K-1 which can be used to pay some of the creditors.

It is a very long and costly process to file a petition for a foreigner in Japan."

[keithlewis]

Report about FEG´s bankruptcy

http://www.feg-jp.com/en/

This is Sadaharu Tanikawa. As I already announced last April, trademark right of K-1 has been transferred to K-1 Global Holdings / EMCOM and I resigned the position of K-1’s event producer. Today I need to inform you another important fact.

I received a notice of a petition for bankruptcy of FEG from Tokyo district court in April 10th. This lawsuit was made by Golden Glory / Knockout Investment. The team leader Bas Boon, who had outstanding money from FEG occurred at K-1 WGP FIANL 2010 and Dynamite 2010, applied an application for the bankruptcy.

K-1’s right has been transferred to EMCOM but most of the debt was left to FEG. I had been trying to pay off the debt but after becoming bankrupt, there are no ways left to carry it on. I was working with people who Boon and EMCOM brought to pay off the debt but Boon changed his mind and suddenly pushed us to bankruptcy. This was surprising to me and I didn’t understand why he had to do that. Somehow he needed to make that action for some reasons.

After appearing 2 times in court, the district court delivered us a judgment of bankruptcy. An official receiver was designated and bankruptcy proceeding has already started. In the next procedure, assets and debt are officially adjusted and then reported to creditors. I truly apologize to all creditors. I will submit all property I possess. I will sacrifice all my life to compensate for this.

After the judgment was delivered, I spoke to Mr. Boon. He was saying like “I have no grudge against you, Tanikawa. I know you have been working hard to protect K-1. I know you have no money left on you. But I just have another purpose that I had to make this action and have FEG become bankrupt”. I’m not on the position for blaming Mr. Boon. So I think I should not make any statements on this. I only would like to apologize to all the people who have supported K-1 for long time. I once promise to make up to the people in the rest of my life. This is my last message on this website. I wish new K-1 best. Once again, I appreciate all the big support you have ever given to us.

May 16, 2012
Former representative director
Sadaharu Tanikawa