![SQRL Aviation’s Raytheon 390 is similar to the one pictured above. [Shutterstock]](https://arkansasbusiness.wppcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/shutterstock_1258418767_opt.jpg)
A high-flying asset owned by SQRL founder Joseph Blake Smith recently entered the ever-growing court docket surrounding Smith and his companies. Smith’s Raytheon 390 jet joined scores of convenience store properties scattered across a dozen states that are entangled in foreclosure or other creditor-driven legal action.
Smith is trying to thwart the seizure of the aircraft by JB&B Capital LLC of Knoxville, Tennessee, which provided a $1.4 million loan to his SQRL Aviation LLC. Repayment of that loan bears the irrevocable guarantee of Smith and his SQRL Holdings LLC.
In a sworn affidavit, Smith alleged that on Jan. 14 JB&B Capital “unlawfully posted a notice on the plane that it was being repossessed and pressured the hangar operator to stop me from using my plane.”
On Jan. 15, the would-be C-store mogul went to Pulaski County Circuit Court to block the lender’s repossession efforts. On Jan. 16, JB&B had the dispute moved to federal court in Little Rock. The next day, U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson denied SQRL Aviation’s request for an emergency injunction.
The now-contentious loan dates back to Dec. 27, 2023, when SQRL Aviation borrowed $1.42 million from JB&B Capital to refinance the purchase of the corporate jet.
According to a bill of sale filed in its lawsuit, SQRL Aviation bought the aircraft from Little Rock’s Airsouth Aviation Services Inc. on Nov. 18, 2021.
Smith said in a sworn affidavit that the jet is often chartered by third parties in addition to his private use. He learned of the Jan. 14 repossession move by JB&B “when a pilot and passenger chartering the plane arrived to fly to the East Coast.”
Smith claims the 96-month loan is usurious at 12% and unenforceable. He also claims that JB&B has no secured interest in the plane and, therefore, no legal right to seize it. However, the loan documents indicate otherwise.
Smith also claims to have made 12 monthly payments, implying the loan is current. Monthly payments are $23,079, according to the loan agreement.
Even if Smith was current on the loan, the agreement specifies other default provisions. One such default trigger is failing to provide JB&B Capital accurate, up-to-date financial information on the loan guarantors.
That could occur if Smith didn’t provide quarterly balance sheets for SQRL Holdings or his quarterly personal financial statements “in form and substance satisfactory to the lender.”
Under terms of the loan, JB&B was to receive that information as soon as available, but in no event later than 90 days after the end of each calendar quarter.
Divorce Court
On Oct. 22, Smith’s second wife, Amanda, filed for divorce to end their three-year marriage, citing general indignities as to render her condition in life intolerable.
On Nov. 19, Smith was ordered to pay her $23,000 in temporary monthly support until a final divorce trial on April 24.

Setting the stage for that order was a Nov. 18 motion for continuance by Joseph Smith’s attorney, Clint Lancaster. He said that Smith was living in Seaside, Florida, and has contracted what appears to be gastroenteritis.
Lancaster also noted that Smith is medicated and was not capable of traveling to Arkansas for a Nov. 19 hearing. The attorney added that he didn’t believe that an airline company would allow his client to fly due to his condition.
The pleading did not mention Smith’s private jet.
In any case, that continuance issue fell by the wayside after Danny Crabtree, Amanda Smith’s attorney, responded less than two hours later.
Crabtree said Smith was not being candid with the court. He noted that Smith met with his client on the morning of Nov. 18 in person for coffee and that he was fine that morning.
In opposing the motion for a continuance, Crabtree also pointed out that his client needs temporary support and has no ability to pay her bills because Smith is refusing to provide her with access to bank accounts and has cut off access to all credit cards.
Trouble in Florida
A SQRL-generated dispute over a $6 million irrevocable standby letter of credit continues to move forward in Miami federal court.
World Fuel Services alleges that First Service Bank of Greenbrier issued the funding agreement for the benefit of SQRL Holdings. However, the bank failed to honor it after SQRL Holdings defaulted on more than $6 million in various funding agreements with World Fuel.
Now, a partial deposition of Robert “Eddie” Ramsey, vice president of commercial lending with First Service Bank, has been made part of the court record. His signature appears on the $6 million letter of credit.
Under questioning by World Fuel attorneys at an Oct. 15 deposition in Little Rock, Ramsey said at one point his forged signature appeared in the paper trail of bank documents.
Q. Now, you sent this email, which included a letter of credit as an attachment from your First Service Bank email address; correct?
A. Yes, by the look of this email.
Q. And in the body of the email, you tell Ms. Justice that the original will be there tomorrow. Do you see that?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you send the original the next day?
A. No. No.
Q. Why not?
A. Because I told her that it was not executed. I looked at this — I did not look at it when I sent it. That’s not my signature, and I told her that the letter of credit would be sent when it was — when our conversation, it would be sent.
Q. There’s a lot to unpack there. So let’s go to the last page of the attachment where it says, “Robert Ramsey, VP Commercial Lender.” There’s a signature there. Do you see that?
A. Right.
Q. That’s not your signature?
A. No, that’s not my signature.
Q. Okay. And you don’t know — so somebody forged it? Is that your testimony?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you know who?
A. I didn’t see it happen, so I do not know.
Q. So how did you get this document?
A. It was sent to me.
Q. By who?
A. I’m pretty sure it was Blake. I don’t have the emails anymore.