On January 18th of this year United States Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote a letter to the Justice Department which you can read here.
Warren was writing to express her concerns for the “Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings of Tehum Care Services,” a company which was formerly a part of prison health care service provider Corizon Health.
Charles Gassenheimer, chief executive.
The Senator alleged that Corizon was using a fraudulent maneuver called the Texas Two-Step to “evade liability for the company’s serious harms.”
Harm which include “countless wrongful death, medical malpractice, and other tort claims against it–principally to the detriment of incarcerated creditors harmed by Corizon” according to the Senator.
THE total number of lawsuits filed against Corizon now exceeds 700 with claims totaling more than $1.2 billion, including nearly $100 million in unpaid vendor claims.
Which sounded familiar. #KellyMoore
Corizon filed for bankruptcy on February 17th of 2023, just eight days after I recorded that fateful podcast with Charles Gassenheimer which so many of you saw the beginnings of earlier this week.
Just days before that filing Gassenheimer mentions Corizon, though I can't say his story sounded the same as the one he filed in court just a week later.
Senator Warren's point would be that both stories are lies, I concur.
In a filing last week the Justice Department agreed with Senator Warren and asked the bankruptcy court to dismiss the case against Corizon which would leave the company to "face the consequences of its actions" as Warren insists.
If the judge agrees the case against Corizon will be dismissed and the company will no longer be granted the protections of bankruptcy courty, which would allow all the cases against Corizon to proceed in civil court.
Or criminal?
Walmart Sells Paint?
Also in paint news last week, the country’s second largest paint manufacturer PPG announced they’ve hired Goldman Sachs to assist in “A review of strategic alternatives for its architectural coatings business in the U.S. and Canada.”
Which came as no surprise to the followers of this page!
THE brands being reviewed included Glidden, Olympic, Liquid Nails, Homax, Pittsburgh Paints and Stains, Manor Hall, Flood, Dulux and Sico “amongst other” brands the company cared so little about they didn’t bother to mention them in the announcement
It will be interesting to see if any market develops for these brands, most of which come with at-least some baggage.
Glidden was bought by ICI paints and then again by Akzo Nobel before being purchased by PPG in 2013 for $1 billion; an amount PPG seems unlikely to recover were they to decide to sell the brand. With Olympic, Glidden is made for the big box retailers, most notably Home Depot, though PPG chief executive Tim Knavish did remind listeners to a webcast of the announcement that “PPG is now the number one paint brand at Walmart.”
Walmart sells paint?
Independent paint retailers may also be impacted by PPG’s “strategic review” which leaves the future of the Manor Hall brand in doubt; Manor Hall is the company’s premium paint line available exclusively to independent retailers.
Few independents I know depend on PPG as a strategic partner, rather they use the brand to gain access to a broad range of specialty products and special pricing the company was known for. For these dealers, whether PPG exits or remains in the channel will have little consequence.
But the hundreds of independents who brand their stores PPG have far more invested than the few pallets of Dry Fall or 6-70, they have stores filled with PPG paints, and covered in PPG branding!
With large investments in the brand, dealers hearing of the announcement expressed concerns for those investements.
But no one was surprised.
