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Prosser Wines Fetch Just Pennies On the Dollar

Bankrupt former Vitelco owner Jeffrey Prosser’s St. Croix wine collection netted $15,739 at auction last month, roughly three percent of its estimated $491,000 value when first inventoried for Prosser’s bankruptcy.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court attributed the near-total loss to Prosser’s contempt for court orders.

Prosser purchased millions of dollars of wine with company money while owner of Innovative and Vitelco. He purchased $6 million in wine with one credit card, from one wholesaler, from 1999 to 2006, putting it on a company credit card in his name that was then paid off by New ICC – and ultimately by Vitelco and Innovative Cable TV ratepayers.

The wines sold last month were from Prosser’s Estate Shoys residence. A court ordered inventory in 2008 found 980 bottles with an estimated worth of about $491,000. In 2011, a second inventory found 453 bottles worth $139,000 missing. A wine expert tested six bottles of the must durable wines among the remaining 527 bottles and "testified that none of the wines located at the Shoys Estate were marketable or had any sale value," according to the bankruptcy court’s opinion sanctioning Prosser for misconduct.

The wine was sold at auction April 6, fetching gross proceeds of $22,709. About $2,065 of that went to pay the auctioneer’s feee and another $4,905 in expenses were subtracted from that total, leaving net proceeds to the bankruptcy estate of $15,739. The single largest expense was $1,607 for advertising the auction in the V.I. Daily News, followed by $1,597 for hotels and meals for the auctioneers, and $1,166 for airfare.

The court found Prosser in civil contempt of court in 2012 for the dissipation of the valuable wine collection and has issued two orders imposing sanctions that currently total nearly $1 million. (See related links below)

Meanwhile, James P. Carroll, the court-appointed trustee for Prosser’s personal estate, is seeking similar but smaller sanctions against Prosser’s son Adrian Prosser. Carroll alleges the younger Prosser directly violated a court order forbidding him to sell a $31,000, 2.43 carat diamond Kaufman de Suisse ring.

According to court documents, Jeffrey Prosser purchased the ring with company money in 2004, as his financial situation began to spiral out of control. It was around this time creditors began filing lawsuits alleging he sold preferred stock, illegally liquidating assets he had already pledged as collateral for hundreds of millions in loans.

In 2007, after Prosser entered involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings, the court issued an order directing all the Prossers not to sell or dispose of any jewelry or other property purchased by Jeffrey Prosser or with company money. According to Carroll, Adrian Prosser sold the ring in 2009 for $7,000 and kept the proceeds.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Judith Fitzgerald issued an order April 24 finding Prosser in contempt and directing Carroll to file a bill of fees and costs related to the contempt motion against Adrian Prosser.

The court will listen to arguments concerning the contempt order at an omnibus hearing May 18 in Pittsburgh, Pa.

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