Gregory S. Milligan, CTP
Executive Vice President
Education & Qualifications
Bachelor of Arts in Economics, University of Texas
Texas Real Estate License
Certified Turnaround Professional
Membership & Community
Executive Council, State Bar of Texas Bankruptcy Law Section
Board Member, TMA Central Texas
National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees
American Bankruptcy Institute
Association of Fraud Examiners
Commercial Finance Association
Court-Appointed Special Advocate and Guardian Ad Litem
Gregory S. Milligan, CTP
Executive Vice President
For more than 25 years, and with engagements involving onsite advisory to clients in more than 25 states and multiple foreign countries, Greg has maintained a practice surrounding troubled situations or situations that require fiduciary oversight. He joined Harney Partners in 1998 and opened the second HP office in Austin in 2001. Since that time, he has both led and collaborated on engagements with highly successful outcomes, meriting multiple national peer-review awards from the Turnaround Management Association and the M&A Advisor.
The common thread which runs throughout Greg’s career is his ability to enter a new and troubled situation to quickly develop an understanding of the situation, identify the key resources needed to achieve the best possible outcome, develop multiple strategic alternatives toward that outcome, and manage the personnel and other resources required to execute the selected plan – all while developing working relationships with necessary stakeholder constituencies.
Greg has served both inside and outside of court proceedings in many different capacities, including:
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Greg also holds a Texas Real Estate License and is an eligible Special Deputy Receiver approved by the Texas Department of Insurance with respect to the rehabilitation and/or liquidation of Texas insurance entities.
Representative Engagements
Chief Restructuring Officer
- Chief Restructuring Officer for RIC (Austin), LLC which is involved in the redevelopment of the 110-acre former Motorola manufacturing campus in Austin, Texas with more than $120MM in alleged total debt. The site has been the subject of prior and unsuccessful redevelopment efforts. Currently, efforts involve a fresh technical assessment of the property to guide future strategy and planning.
- Chief Restructuring Officer and President of Austin Bergstrom Landhost Enterprises, Inc., a non-profit public facilities corporation acting as an instrumentality of the City of Austin to operate the Hilton Austin Airport Hotel, a four-story facility with 262 guest rooms and 18,000 square feet of meeting space located adjacent to the passenger terminal at Austin Bergstrom International Airport. A settlement with a vulture bondholder fund refinanced $60MM of bond debt for $30MM through the issuance of $46.3MM of new bond debt, which provided approximately $15MM for capital expenditures to improve the property and other purposes. Greg continues to serve as President of the restructured entity.
- Chief Restructuring Officer of, and independent Board Member to, First Choice Pet Care, Inc. operating as “The Corner Vet” with nine (9) limited-service veterinarian clinics in the Dallas and Houston markets providing pet owners a high-quality, reasonably-priced alternative to traditional high-cost veterinary care. This matter involved an out-of-court recapitalization of the company through a second round of investor financing.
- Chief Restructuring Officer of Galveston Bay Properties, LLC, an E&P company and debtor in a Chapter 11 case pending in San Antonio, Texas with approximately 20,000 acres under lease from the State of Texas in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico with 124 well bores and 23 producing wells during the case. Approximately two months after being appointed as CRO, a plan was confirmed that converted $3.56MM of DIP loans to equity and infused another $3.44MM of cash into the debtor at the Effective Date for additional equity. The total investment of $7MM obtained a controlling stake in both the debtor and its affiliated company that operated the fields. The Plan also provided for the repayment of all debt to all creditors.
- Chief Restructuring Officer of Oxane Materials, Inc., a Chapter 11 debtor in Houston, Texas that raised approximately $150MM in equity, and at the time of filing owed more than $40MM in senior and subordinated secured debt. The company designed and produced a nanotechnology ceramic proppant used in oil and gas “fracking,” but the operations never achieved sufficient volume and economies of scale to reach a profitable cost structure prior to the macroeconomic downturn in that industry. As a result, operations were ceased, and an orderly wind down was conducted through a Chapter 11 proceeding wherein the intellectual property was sold to Halliburton Energy Services and the Houston research labs and Arkansas manufacturing facility were sold to Chemject International.
Restructuring Advisor (Out-of-Court)
- Out-of-Court Restructuring Advisor to Chicago-based Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, the largest statewide social service agency in the State of Illinois, which was started in 1867 and maintained a $100MM+ operating budget. Due to the state’s inability to pass a budget to pay LSSI for its contracted services, the agency was incurring cash losses of $5MM per year when HMP was engaged. After closing certain operations which were not receiving payment from the state, transitioning 800 employees to new service providers to maintain continuity of care for all clients, eliminating unprofitable programs, right-sizing headcount, curbing excess spending, selling and refinancing certain facilities, and diversifying revenue streams to reduce the reliance on the State, the $5MM cash loss was turned into a $3MM cash surplus, for an $8MM swing – in less than 6 months.
- Out-of-Court Restructuring Advisor to LongVANS, Inc. and its 14 related LLCs based in Green Bay, Wisconsin and operating within a six-state regional territory. The company and related entities had not been making debt service payments to multiple secured lenders for many months at the time of HMP’s engagement. After gaining the cooperation of 10 secured lenders operating without any inter-creditor agreements, many of which maintained pending foreclosure actions, and an active trade creditor group with 8 judgments and 14 pending lawsuits, a going-concern sale process was completed that paid all secured creditors at closing, paid all trade creditors in full, and returned a dividend to the investor class.
This engagement was recognized by both the Turnaround Management Association as Small Company Transaction of the Year and the M&A Advisor as the Divestiture of the Year.
Restructuring Advisor (Chapter 11)
- Restructuring Advisor and Post-Confirmation Trustee to Wick Building Systems, Inc., a Chapter 11 debtor in Madison, Wisconsin. This matter involved the closure of two unprofitable divisions and the operation/sale of a third, profitable division, after an extensive §363 sale process. The “crash landing” Chapter 11 filing was precipitated by the senior secured lender sweeping the company’s seven-figure account balance due to concerns as to whether the company had the ability to repay the principal balance owed on the loan facility; however, after a successful sale process, an 80% dividend was returned to the unsecured creditors of all three divisions from the sale proceeds of only one division. The ultimate buyer was the namesake founder of the business and minority owner on the date of filing, who continues the family business today.The efforts in this case were recognized by our industry peers through receipt of the Community Impact Deal of the Year by the M&A Advisor.
- Chapter 11 Restructuring Advisor to InGEAR Corporation, a Chicago-based $70 million contract manufacturer of luggage, sports bags, and backpacks for private label brands sold at Target, Kohl’s, J. C. Penney, Walmart, and K-Mart. The company also held licenses to manufacture the same product lines for Champion, Spalding, Coleman, Hummer, Rubbermaid, and Laura Ashley. This engagement involved the orderly wind down of activities in both the U.S. and Asia, a §363 asset sale in Chapter 11, as well as the identification of financial and collateral reporting irregularities by the debtor’s management.
Chapter 11 Operating Trustee
- Chapter 11 Operating Trustee for Harriett Heep-Schaffer in a high-profile and highly contentious bankruptcy case involving real property valued at more than $30 million. After litigation and negotiations to clear clouds on the title, and defending a toll road condemnation proceeding, a plan was developed to obtain exit financing which provided sufficient funding to pay all creditors 100%, plus interest. This left ownership of the property with the Debtor, who ultimately realized an eight-figure net return.
- Chapter 11 Operating Trustee for 3443 Zen Garden, LP wherein the debtor is involved in the redevelopment of an approximately 110-acre former Motorola manufacturing campus in Austin, Texas with almost $120MM in secured debt, into a mixed-used development. Nine months after being appointed, a consensual plan was developed and confirmed which allowed for 100% dividend to all allowed unsecured claimants.
- Chapter 11 Operating Trustee for Canadian River Ranch, LLC and Daryl Greg Smith wherein the debtors owned and operated an 11,000-acre ranch in McIntosh County, Oklahoma, and 2,200 acres of ranch property in Bosque County, Texas. During the case, Greg obtained court approval for a solar lease on a portion of the Bosque County property that will contractually pay $37MM over 40 years.
Chapter 11 Post-Confirmation Trustee and Plan Trustee
- Chapter 11 Post-Confirmation Trustee for Warranty Gold, Ltd., representing the interests of 64,000 policy holders of a failed automotive extended warranty company. This engagement involved the direction of complex litigation against multiple third-party defendants both in the United States and the Cayman Islands, as well as the Chapter 11 claims adjudication process issuing payment to all 64,000 customers holding claims exceeding $50 million. As Trustee, Greg also served on the Creditors Committee in the Cayman Island insolvency proceedings of National Warranty Insurance Risk Retention Group, which was the administrator and insurer of Warranty Gold’s extended vehicle service contracts.
- Chapter 11 Post-Confirmation Trustee to Galveston Bay Biodiesel, LP, a Chapter 11 debtor in Galveston, Texas. This matter involved an orderly wind down and §363 sale process of a biodiesel refinery after assisting in the formulation of the Disclosure Statement and Plan. The case was precipitated by catastrophic damage caused to the refinery by Hurricane Ike, so claims were also litigated against the debtor’s insurance carriers to recover on claims for the benefit of creditors.
- Chapter 11 Post-Confirmation Trustee for VPR Operating, LLC and other consolidated E&P (exploration and production) debtor entities with oil and gas interests in Oklahoma and New Mexico. All such assets of the Debtors were sold pre-confirmation. Greg stepped into pending subordination/re-characterization litigation filed by the Committee against certain investors and alleged pre-petition lenders. Post-confirmation, Greg also filed approximately forty (40) Chapter 5 causes of action, as well as additional D&O litigation. The recoveries from these litigation claims provided a recovery to all allowed unsecured creditors.
- Chapter 11 Plan Trustee for Regent Park Capital, LLC, a hard money lender providing short-term commercial loans, commercial bridge loans, asset-based loans, and hard money loans. Upon the illness and death of RPC’s founder and managing member, the company was not able to reorganize, so the decision was made to confirm a plan of liquidation through a Plan Administrator. Through the Plan Administrator, the remaining portfolio of loans was wound down for the benefit of the senior secured creditor, primarily through the foreclose and sale of the collateral properties, both at the courthouse sale and by listing the property for sale after obtaining title in the name of the debtor’s estate.
- Post-Confirmation Trustee for BullionDirect, Inc., an online seller of precious metals (primarily coins). Additionally, BDI agreed to store metals on behalf of its customers; however, prior to filing of the case, the debtor misappropriated approximately $25MM of customer metals affecting approximately 7,500 consumers. As Trustee, the company’s remaining metals inventory was sold, litigation claims were resolved, and contract rights were monetized. After a claims review and allowance process, these proceeds were distributed to allowed claimants. The debtor’s principal, Charles McAllister, was charged criminally and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.
State Court Receiver
- State Court Receiver for WC 1st and Trinity, LP and WC 3rd and Congress, LP, two single-asset entities each owning prime, undeveloped real property in downtown Austin, Texas. A plan was developed, and each property was sold in separate campaigns for a combined sale price of $172MM – which sales set all-time records for the first and second highest per square prices for raw land in the history of Austin. This matter is still pending in Travis County, Texas.
- State Court Receiver for Medina Valley Materials, LLC, Medina Valley Land, LLC, Medina Valley Equipment, LLC, Medina Valley Holdings, LLC and Medina Valley Concrete Construction, LLC, which are related entities and the subject of a shareholder dispute and “corporate divorce.” After determining that the underlying businesses could not be operated profitably, steps were taken to monetize both the tangible assets and litigation claims. The proceeds from this effort were sufficient to pay in full all third-party creditor claims and return many millions of dollars in cash and property to shareholders through a settlement brokered by the Receiver.
- State Court Receiver for Pride of Austin High Yield Fund I, LLC, a private real estate investment fund providing loans for both residential and commercial development purposes, with approximately $40MM of investor cash contributed to the fund; however, the fund was operated as a Ponzi scheme for many years before investors filed suit and obtained a receiver to investigate and confirm the fraud, then wind down the fund in a way that maximizes the return to all stakeholders. This matter is still pending.
- State Court Receiver for Redfield 34 Apartments, an experimental program by the Austin Housing Finance Corporation to provide transitional housing for those experiencing homelessness. The ongoing assignment involves the rehabilitation and renovation of the properties, renegotiation of land use restrictions, restructuring of the tenant base, and ultimate sale of the property.
- State Court Receiver for Pride of Austin High Yield Fund I, a hard money lender investment fund with approximately 220 active investors who invested and/or reinvested a total of $60MM. Harney’s initial assessment indicated the fund owned assets well below the purported fund value $60MM and the fund has been distributing investor principal, disguised as profits, to investors during the entirety of the initial two-year lookback period. This matter is still pending in Travis County, Texas.
- State Court Receiver for House Savings Investment and AA House Savings Financial, two mortgage processing companies in Houston, Texas, or “Money Service Businesses” (as defined by Texas Statute), with approximately 18,000 customers, which were sued by the Texas Attorney General and the Texas Department of Banking for failing to account for millions of dollars of consumer trust funds and operating a money service business without a license. After running the businesses for a period of time, it was determined that rehabilitation was not possible if the companies were to operate within the requirements of all relevant regulations. As such, an orderly wind down was conducted of both companies in a manner that insured all active customers’ mortgage payments were timely remitted during the transition. A forensic investigation was conducted to identify defrauded customers, the sources and uses of embezzled consumer trust funds, the location and liquidation of recoverable assets, and the development of an equitable claims and distribution process. Ultimately, funds were traced through 32 different insider bank accounts to the purchase of eight (8) real properties with misappropriated customer funds, which were recovered from the insiders and sold for the benefit of defrauded customers.
- State Court Receiver for Warr Investment Group, Warr International Group and sixteen (16) other persons and entities sued by the Texas Attorney General and the Texas State Securities Board for selling unregistered securities by unlicensed dealers and though various means of fraud. An orderly wind down was conducted for the assets of each entity and a forensic investigation was conducted to identity affected investors, the source and use of investor funds, the location and liquidation of all recoverable assets, and the development of an equitable claims and distribution process. In the end, investors received a dividend of 44.4% on their investment claims, which is well above the national average for Ponzi scheme recoveries. Greg provided his investigative findings to the State Board of Securities and testified at the trial of the companies’ principal, James E. Warr, resulting in a conviction on four first-degree felony counts of theft, securities fraud, money laundering, and misapplication of fiduciary property. Mr. Warr was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
- State Court Receiver for Incline Global Technology Services, Ltd., a high-tech service company located in Round Rock, Texas, adjacent to its major customer, Dell Computer. IGTS was the subsidiary of a UK entity “in administration,” which is an insolvency process under the management of a court-appointed administrator. The assignment involved the operation of the business for a period while the orderly wind down and sale was arranged and closed with Jabil Circuit, a Fortune 200 company, which allowed the retention of all 140 local jobs. Finally, Greg was able to negotiate a consensual reduction in the unsecured claim of the parent company in the UK against IGTS from $41 million to $0, which allowed for a 52% dividend to unsecured creditors.
- State Court Receiver for Austin Baccus Company, Inc., the exclusive online domestic retailer of refurbished Dyson vacuum cleaners through its warehouse showroom and multiple online sales channels, including eBay and Amazon, as well as its own website. The assignment involved the orderly winddown and liquidation of the online warehouse business, as well as a going-concern sale of the defendant’s retail showroom and repair facility.
Orderly Wind Down + Liquidation Agent
- Advisor, with other members of Harney Partners, to ten-member bank syndicate related to its $350 million credit facility to Neuman Distributors, Inc., which was the 6th largest drug and pharmaceutical products wholesaler in the United States at that time, with annual sales of $2.5 billion in the year the engagement began. With primary operations in New York and New Jersey, Greg lead the onsite efforts at the various distribution centers to supervise the orderly wind down and liquidation of approximately $250 million of pharmaceutical assets located across four (4) states. These efforts also lead to the discovery of undisclosed inventory fraud approaching $10 million and a post-liquidation Chapter 7 proceeding.
- Sole director, as appointed by the U. S. Bankruptcy Court, of Esperada Holdings, a registered and domiciled Cayman Island corporation, whereby Greg liquidated luxury cars, a yacht, a scuba boat, an apartment complex, and other assets located in the Cayman Islands for the benefit of creditors in the bankruptcy case pending in Austin, Texas.
- Trustee of the WaterRun Liquidation Trust where substantially all of the assets of the telecom hardware manufacturer were sold and the remnant assets were liquidated, including litigation claims, and a final distribution was made to all participants of the lending group.
Federal Court Receiver
- Federal Court Receiver In Re: Securities and Exchange Commission vs. Kevin Merrill, Jay Ledford, et al, wherein the defendants orchestrated a $400MM Ponzi scheme and the Receiver has been granted exclusive possession and control over approximately 40 entities and all assets of those entities. This matter is currently ongoing and has involved the operations of three (3) separate businesses, including the administration of a $6B portfolio of consumer debt, as well as the liquidation of real estate, exotic cars, a yacht, jewelry and other luxury goods. All three individual defendants were charged criminally, pleaded guilty to federal charges and the primary actors were sentenced to 22 years (Merrill) and 14 years (Ledford) in prison.
- Federal Court Receiver In Re: Regent Park Capital, LLC, a hard money lender offering short-term commercial loans, commercial bridge loans, asset-based loans, and hard money loans. The assignment involved the sale of 40 acres of commercial real estate from a defaulted borrower.
Court-Appointed Neutral
- Appointed by State Court In Re: R. Partnership, LLC, a family-owned holding company of five (5) affiliates that owed/operated high-end manufactured home communities and RV parks near Lake Tahoe, California, Austin, Texas, Gulf Shores, Alabama and Tyler, Texas. A fight between siblings over management control led to Harney’s appointment to monetize the assets of each entity, pay off all third-party claims, and distribute tens of millions of dollars to the members. To date, Harney has obtained court approval to sell the majority of the property portfolio for $73 million, which has generated $42 million in distributions to equity thus far.
- Appointed as Examiner by State Court In Re: Elm Creek Investments, LLC to create financial reporting and analysis (from scratch because no reliable accounting records existed) for more than 70 entities with hundreds of millions of dollars of asset value for use by the parties and the Court in the pending litigation.
- Appointed by State Court In Re: Morton vs. Milam to serve as Receiver over all the defendant’s personal assets in connection with plaintiff’s collection of a seven-figure judgment. The property of the receivership estate included interests in approximately 50 separate limited partnerships and limited liability corporations. After approximately 60 days of investigating Milam’s assets and making an initial report to the Court, Greg was able to assist the parties to reach a full and complete settlement of all pending claims and counterclaims.
- Appointed by State Court In Re: Kastleman vs. Kastleman to serve as Receiver over several limited partnerships, which involved seven figures of operating real estate in multiple cities around Texas in a contested divorce proceeding. Greg monitored all real estate operations on a real-time basis and was given authority to approve certain operating transactions proposed by the parties, as well as to resolve disputes between the parties during the pendency of the case. Greg ultimately helped to facilitate a final settlement between the parties.
- Appointed by Bankruptcy Court In Re: Seda France, Inc. as Trustee of the Seda France Equity Trust to hold the equity of the reorganized debtor in trust to secure full payment to allowed creditors and other compliance by the debtor with the confirmed plan. Greg monitored plan compliance, called multiple defaults to gain compliance with the confirmation order, and after a successful completion of the plan, released the stock being held in trust.
- Appointed by State Court In Re: Stacy R. Schiffman, et al v. Nelson Partners, LLC, et al to serve as Plan Administrator for a Plan of Liquidation to fund a $50 million settlement for the benefit of investor claims.
Recent Blog Posts & Presentations By Gregory S. Milligan, CTP
May 1, 2024
TMA Chicago Midwest Podcast Featuring Greg Milligan and Jim Keane | Decoding Receiverships
Podcast: Decoding Receiverships: Insights From Jim Keane and Greg Milligan of Harney Partners Listen to the latest TMA Chicago Midwest Podcast hosted by Paul Musser, Partner of Katten, as he…Read More
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Unlock Success: Discover if Your Company Has What It Takes for a Business Turnaround
Developing a business turnaround strategy for your business may be one of the hardest things you ever do. The time has come to ask that critical question: can this business…Read More
March 27, 2024
Understanding Receiverships in Real Estate Transactions
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February 2, 2024
Receivers and Receiverships in Texas
The appointment of a receiver to add independence and objectivity to maximize value in various business situations is becoming more commonplace in Texas. As people recognize the benefits of a…Read More