Lawsuit Says Turner Grain Companies Shared Assets as ‘Same Entity’

The Brinkley headquarters of Turner Grain Merchandising Inc. and its related companies.

The financial mess at Turner Grain Merchandising Inc. of Brinkley is getting messier.

Bankruptcy attorney Kevin Keech of North Little Rock, who has been acting as receiver of the grain distribution company since September, filed a lawsuit last week in Turner’s bankruptcy case asking that eight related entities be stopped from shedding assets while he plans to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for each of the companies.

Keech said in the filing that the companies, with names that include Agri-Petroleum Sales LLC, Brinkley Truck Brokerage LLC and Ivory Rice LLC, are so intertwined that they shared money and other assets with Turner Grain.

Turner Grain and the other companies would “pay the debts of one another, as though they were the same entity,” Keech wrote.

Keech has asked U.S. District Judge James M. Moody Jr. to be appointed the receiver of Turner’s related companies too, but a ruling hasn’t been made as of Thursday.

He said in the filing that once he’s made the receiver, he’ll move forward with their bankruptcy filings.

As you remember, Turner filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October and reported $24.8 million in debts and $13.8 million in assets.

Keech, who was unavailable for comment, said in a related filing on Thursday that he’s been paid $42,375 for his work as the receiver.