Former Fox Collision Center owner Todd Fox and his wife Jody Fox filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy – the sale of the debtors’ exempt property to repay creditors – in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wichita, Kan., on Dec. 15.
The couple listed $9,960 in assets and almost $20 million in liabilities, the Wichita Eagle reported. The filing includes a few debts attributable to the failed Fox Collision Center chain, along with a group of “largely unknown” debts, the Eagle said. The couple’s biggest creditor listed is DuPont, to which they owe $1.7 million for equipment likely connected to the business.
According to the filing, the couple’s assets include less than $500 in checking and retirement accounts and two vehicles, a 1975 Cadillac and a 1998 GMC pickup.
Todd Fox abruptly shut his 18 shops in October 2007, leaving employees and creditors unpaid. After the closings, employees filed a class-action lawsuit against Fox for the pay owed to them. The business then filed for bankruptcy in January with more than $7 million in debt.
At a February bankruptcy court hearing, Fox described the failed company’s finances using words such as “estimate” and “guess,” and struggled to answer questions regarding the bankruptcy. He blamed the closings on auto insurance companies, whose policies he said made it impossible to operate the shops profitably.
News outlets have had difficulty tracking down Fox, who was chased through a Colorado hotel parking lot by a Tulsa, Okla., TV news crew in December 2007. At one point, Fox opened a store selling leather goods in Colorado, but he now lists his address as a UPS store in Rochester, Minn.
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