Creditors try to force Sillerman into Ch. 7
Creditors of media entrepreneur Robert F.X. Sillerman are seeking to force the onetime billionaire into bankruptcy to try and collect on a $7.36 million judgment against him, according to court documents.
Two Chicago-based concert promoters last week filed an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition against Sillerman in federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan.
They are seeking to collect a judgment they won last month against Sillerman over a promissory note he guaranteed on behalf of his SFX Entertainment.
Sillerman founded the company in 2012 to promote electronic dance music festivals, and in 2014 acquired React Presents and Clubtix from Jeffery Callahan and Lucas King.
Part of the deal payment was in the form of a $10 million promissory note.
SFX Entertainment acquired festivals such as Tomorrow World but had trou- ble bringing them together in one corporate family and filed for bankruptcy in February 2016. A month later, King and Callahan and the their two companies sued Sillerman in Chicago federal court to collect on the promissory note.
The creditors are represented by Michael Edelman of Vedder Price in New York, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sillerman could not be reached for comment.
Forbes Magazine in 2008 included Sillerman on its list of “poor billionaires,” or those who failed to crack the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans. He appeared on the list in 2005.
Sillerman built his fortune over decades of well-timed deals consolidating the entertainment industry, involving radio stations, concert promoters and even Elvis Presley’s Graceland mansion.
A hearing is scheduled for March in the case.