The troubled real estate developer Gary R. Gibbs of Niceville, Florida, who had an ownership interest in the 200-room Hotel Hot Springs & Spa, recently agreed to settle a case with a creditor in his bankruptcy for $80 million.
Gibbs, who pleaded guilty to one federal count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in August, approved a consent judgment with SBN V FNBC LLC, an affiliate of Summit Investment Management LLC of Denver, an investment company that buys distressed loans.
If you recall, back in 2019, SBN received a judgment against the Hotel Hot Springs’ owner, GRGCBHS LLC, for $128.9 million.
Gibbs had personally guaranteed the debt but had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in 2018, which put the collection of his debt on hold.
In February, SBN filed a complaint in Gibbs’ bankruptcy, asking that the $112.9 million not be discharged because of his fraud in obtaining the loans. (The sum indicates the amount SBN recovered through the liquidation of collateral.)
“The financial statements and financial information provided by Gibbs contained false material information such as inflating the value of his real estate, the value of his entities, and otherwise altering financial information regarding himself and his entities,” according to the consent judgment.
The judgment was signed by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ben Barry and had been approved by Gibbs’ bankruptcy attorney, Kevin Keech of Little Rock, and SBN’s attorneys, Charles Coleman and Jaimie Moss of Wright Lindsey & Jennings of Little Rock.
Gibbs’ bankruptcy case remains open.
Meanwhile, Gibbs, who is 66 or 67, is scheduled to be sentenced on June 1, 2022, in U.S. District Court in Louisiana. He faces up to 30 years in prison.
