Arkansas Business

According to company information, Parks established King Coal in 2007 to mine and produce refined coal from surface and deep mines in Arkansas, as well as pursue other coal-related ventures.

Wayne Van Buren, geology supervisor with the surface mining and reclamation division of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, said King Coal has set up a mining office near the Excelsior community in Sebastian County.

"I'm familiar with them, but they haven't done anything," he said. "They've indicated they have an interest in mining, but they don't have any coal mining permits or anything."

The state tax problems for Parks date back to his unsuccessful efforts to pull off a $3.5 million stage production of the "Designing Women" sitcom and to launch a treasure hunt reality show/documentary about the recovery of a sunken fortune of Spanish booty off the coast of Panama.

Also during that time, the Arkansas State Bank Department started action that resulted in the 2007 closing of Arkansas Valley Regional Industrial Development Co.

The venture was led by Carl Bird, who is now chief engineer at King Coal. AVRID issued tax credits to help several Parks-led ventures raise capital.

Those included Sea Heritage Partners LLC, Sea Heritage Capital LLC, Natural Gas Solutions Partners LLC and Natural Gas Solutions Capital LLC. 

The action to close AVRID followed Bird's failure to produce financial documents to substantiate asset claims tied to several businesses. Included in the list were  Parks-led ventures such as:

• Sea Heritage, with a $150 million valuation based on a purported salvage contract with the Republic of Panama that appears to have been suspended by the Panamanian government.
• Winstarr LLC, with a $44.6 million valuation based on projected cash flow from a network of automated teller machines apparently not yet owned.

Parks and Bird disputed the bank department's findings, but AVRID surrendered its certificate of incorporation and agreed to cease and desist from operating and doing business as an industrial development company as part of a settlement agreement.