Pizza

Bankruptcy Court Carves Up Giordano’s Pie

Everybody gets a nice thick slice.
Everybody gets a nice thick slice.

The strange saga of a well-known local deep dish pizza chain seems to have come to an unusually happy ending in bankruptcy court, according to the Tribune. Giordano’s and other related businesses owned by John and Eva Apostolou filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last February, primarily due to the couple becoming overextended on real estate investments. The wrinkle was that somewhere along the way, they got involved with one Marshall Home, an advocate of “sovereign citizen” theory which claims that certain Americans are exempt from income tax and other federal and state laws.

Everybody gets a nice thick slice.

Home’s antics in court advancing his theories came to an abrupt end when the judge had another “sovereign citizen” removed from the court and basically barred further such talk in the proceedings. At that point the proceedings quickly moved to clean up the company’s balance sheets, disposing of some property and preparing it for yesterday’s 14-hour auction sale to Victory Park Capital, which will leave the chain in operation. Even unsecured creditors may see some money and seemed happy with their potential slice of the pie, which never happens. They should all celebrate with a big spinach deep dish.

Giordano’s sold to private equity group for $61.6M [Tribune]

Bankruptcy Court Carves Up Giordano’s Pie