Reagor-Dykes’ CRO Testifies in Second Bankruptcy Court Hearing

On Thursday, a second bankruptcy court hearing took place in Lubbock for several companies of the Reagor-Dykes Auto Group (RDAG). There were over ten items listed on the agenda for Thursday’s hearing, several of which have been put off until September 18 and September 19.

The last time Reagor-Dykes (RD) was in court was on August 16, when a court judge ruled that RD would be allowed to hire a Chief Restructuring Officer (CRO) to oversee certain financial aspects of an ongoing bankruptcy case that involved several RDAG companies. That decision was made despite an objection by Ford Motor Credit which instead sought the appointment of a Chapter 11 Unites States Trustee.

Reagor-Dykes’ CRO, Robert Schleizer with BlackBriar Advisors LLC, was in court on Thursday as the only person to yet testify in the bankruptcy case. In his testimony, Schleizer informed the court that he and his team have been working around the clock to secure RD assets and handle hundreds of customer complaints. According to KAMC News, Schleizer told the court that the nine RD dealerships, despite many currently in bankruptcy, still hold “tremendous enterprise value,” and that he’s found at least three entities potentially interested in buying a number of them.

Another issue on Thursday’s agenda was the dispute over the law firm of David Langston, Mullin Hoard & Brown (MHB), which has been unofficially working with several RDAG companies since they first filed for bankruptcy on August 1, 2018. It was recognized in court that the hiring of MHB was not initially approved by the court in RD’s first bankruptcy hearing. Instead, a personal retainer of $500,000 was put in place in the name of Bart Reagor and Rick Dykes to pay MHB for their legal services, a move that Ford Motor Credit has objected to.

In court it was made known that RD’s CRO, Robert Schleizer decided to fire Mullin Hoard & Brown on August 21 so that he could hire a law firm of his own choosing. It was brought into question how MHB should be paid for work done from August 1 to August 21, considering the firm was never approved by the court to be hired in the first place. In a split motion, the judge granted a request by MHB to be recognized as RD’s legal counsel from August 1 to August 21 but the judge also ruled that the issue of how MHB will be compensated for their work will be discussed later in a special hearing yet to be scheduled.