Bankruptcy Never Seemed So Good!

I haven't felt the need to post much, I'm not really sure if anybody is even checking anyway, but I just came across this little article. The irony of this lawsuit is once again expressed with this new Tangredi business venture. A dozen people are being sued for causing them to go bankrupt, yet they have 3 million dollars at their disposal to bid on the Waffle House chain? Read on...

Tangredi venture bids to buy SouthEast Waffles

By NashvillePost.com staff reports — 08-02-2009 9:06 PM

$24.7 million offer is highest of three made so far for assets of bankrupt chain

An entity led by a member of the Tangredi family of Nashville restaurateurs is seeking to purchase the 105 Waffle House restaurants of Nashville-based SouthEast Waffles LLC, which has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy for almost a year.

Maria Tangredi, wife of M. Tangredi Restaurants Inc. Predident Michael D. Tangredi and mother of that company's chief financial officer, Michael G. Tangredi, submitted a bid on SouthEast Waffles' assets Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Under her reorganization plan a proposed company, to be called MNM Waffles LLC, would pay at least $24.7 million for the chain of diners – $3 million at closing and the rest in the next six to 10 years.

Michael D. and Michael G. Tangredi are not named as participants in the new venture. Both are defendants in a civil lawsuit brought by American Express last year that claims they defrauded the credit-card issuer out of more than $1 million. M. Tangredi Restaurants Inc. is in liquidation under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code, and its three Nashville restaurants are closed.

In an affidavit filed in relation to the seizure by federal authorities of a 2003 Maserati Coupé owned by a Tangredi family member, an agent of the U.S. Secret Service asserted that "probable cause exists to believe that Michael G. Tangredi and Michael D. Tangredi were involved in wire fraud and credit-card fraud." The agent also stated that he had "probable cause to believe that the Maserati was purchased with funds that were fraudulently obtained from American Express."

Michael G. Tangredi is scheduled to go to trial in January on felony charges of forgery and tax evasion brought by the Tennessee Department of Revenue.

The new plan says Maria Tangredi, who has not been sued or prosecuted in those cases, "has been employed in several restaurants owned by members of her family over the course of the past 28 years, including locations in Atlanta, Birmingham, and Nashville." It says she is willing to provide a personal guaranty covering MNM Waffles' obligations if the deal is consummated.

The MNM Waffles reorganization plan is available at this link, and a disclosure statement accompanying it is available here.

The bid appears to offer creditors more than either of the other reorganization plans submitted last month in the SouthEast Waffles bankruptcy case. MNM anticipates that it will pay back roughly 70 percent of claims from unsecured creditors of SouthEast Waffles.

Waffle House Inc., based in Norcross, Ga., has offered some $21.4 million for the assets of its franchisee over the course of ten years, according to court filings, with unsecured creditors due to get back between 25 and 38 percent of their claims.

SouthEast Waffles itself joined in a competing plan by an affiliate of Gaylord Sports Management, an Arizona firm privately owned by Gaylord Entertainment heir E.K. Gaylord II. Gaylord's team, which includes golfer Phil Mickelson as an investor, offered a minimum of $20.2 million for the waffle seller's assets, with $4.8 million coming up front and the remainder paid out over time. Unsecured creditors would receive between 35 and 45 percent of their claims.

The three bidders, and any others who may join the fray in coming days, are to plead their cases at an August 11 hearing in Bankruptcy Court.

Nashville accountant D. Kent Skinner is listed in the MNM Waffles plan as financial advisor to the venture, while it names local attorney John W. Roberts as counsel to MNM.

Glenn Rose, of Harwell Howard Hyne Gabbert & Manner, representing SouthEast Waffles, gave this response when asked about the new bid:

"I am aware of the many other issues facing the Tangredis in connection with their own restaurant operations, and I question their ability to satisfactorily perform in connection with the SouthEast Waffles stores, given that prior history."

Jim Kelley of Neal & Harwell, counsel to secured creditor FirstBank, said the bank had no comment at this time.

An Interesting Encounter at the Clerks Office

Today I finished the final touches on my Motion To Dismiss for the "SLAPP" the Tangredi's filed against us, and I had a very interesting thing happen to me at the County Clerks Office, as my title would suggest.

First, after being all proud of myself staying up all night writing my motion, I went to the office and submitted it only to realize that I didn't put a date on it for the motion to be heard. I'm still learning about the legal process and, unfortunately, without a lawyer it's easy to miss or forget certain details if you haven't been drug through this sort of thing before, or if you don't have a lot of money and time on your hands (like some people?) to sit on the internet all day and google legal stuff. No big deal, the first clerk I talked to was very helpful and told me exactly what I needed to do to set the hearing date and before you know it, I'm back at the office to finish the task. This is when my interesting encounter happened.

After standing for only a few minutes, a clerk approached the counter and asked how they could help me. After stating my purpose they asked, "Are you a Tangredi?"
I said "No, I'm one of the many defendants."

To paraphrase how the rest of the conversation went, they then told me that they (and apparently many other clerks) were already aware of the suit and knew of how many defendants were involved. They then commented on how it was an "interesting case," and I told them they didn't even know the half of it. After a few moments of cordial conversation, the clerk gave me a very helpful resource to aid in gaining further information regarding court proceedings, and even the proper ediquette preferred by each judge in the courtroom. (I don't like chewing gum in my courtroom, etc)

I know I haven't exactly been reaching out to any of the other defendants yet, I've been tied up in preparing my motion and concentrated most of my time preparing my own defense, but I hope this to change soon. My purpose here is to help all defendants that are in need of it, or exchange information that can be beneficial or just plain funny with anybody interested. So, in efforts to not divulge too much information to just ANYBODY reading this blog, please contact me if you would like the website the clerk gave me. I'll do my best to determine if you are who you say you are and give you the link.

Consequently, I understand how cautious some of you other defendants may be about contacting me, given the nature of the predicament we find ourselves in and all. That is why I set this blog up with an e-mail address hosted by a friend of mine who is a musician that I also write and perform with. I encourage you to go to his page, listen to some tunes if you'd like, and determine for yourselves if I am who I claim to be. (this is not a shameless attempt at self promotion by the way)

Furthermore, for those among us that like to sue the pants off anybody they feel has wronged them in any way, I'm going to save you a good deal of time and effort by saying it is perfectly within the rights of any County Clerk to administer aid to someone if it is purely regarding a procedural matter. This is something that has been a great deal of help to me throughout this process already and you shouldn't go wasting time trying to sue a government worker for helping a citizen in this fashion, which I'm sure was probably one of your first thoughts already...

Who's Harassing Who?

The Tangredi's are suing me for sending them "harassing" emails. They are using these emails as evidence proving my involvement in this "conspiracy" against them. However, since they have to my knowledge failed or forgotten to submit these emails as any kind of evidence, I felt I'd help out a little bit and just post em here for all to read. This is the account of all the email exchanges between the Tangredi's and I, including one in which, it appears obvious to me, the Tangredi's were posing as Guy Fawkes.
Please enjoy the read if you have time. Then try and guess who is suing who for sending harassing emails!

1/22/09

From j p,
subject: Tangredikarma 2.0

Hello Everyone,

This is my NEW e-mail address (guyfawkes1001@gmail.com).
I know that all of you were probably pretty po'd that the site was hacked a few weeks ago, me too! Unfortunately, I lost all of my e-mails when I got hacked, but I was able to retrieve all of my contacts. I want to attempt to recreate TangrediKarma again. If you would like, I respectfully ask you to send me your story again if you would like it reposted. I'll start it back up again after I get a few responses, I'm also going to repost all of the recent media as I did before. I think it was serving Nashville a great JUSTICE to know the nitty gritty about the Tangredi "Empire". The Tangredis probably think that were finished, but we're just getting started.

Much Respect,
GF



1/25/09

From Michael Tangredi,
subject: w-2 forms

What address can I send your w-2 form to? I'm trying to get them out middle of this week. Let me know as soon as possible. Thanks

• Be mindful, this message was sent to an email address that they should have had no way of knowing about, aside from the fact that I used it to contact Guy Fawkes.

2/18/09

From Me,
no subject

I'm very interested in how you got this email, and exactly what game you might be trying to play.


2/18/09

From Michael Tangredi
subject: reply

I got it from Guy Fawkes. As a matter of fact, I got all of the e-mails that were sent to Guy Fawkes. They're a pretty interesting read...


2/18/09

From Michael Tangredi


Needless to say that the USSS loved it.

2/20/09

From Michael Tangredi

See. That's the thing about telling misinformed shit to an anonymous psychopath. They're ANONYMOUS, so that means it can be ANYONE. The best thing about it, "Dennis", is that I'd say within the next few weeks you and everybody who e-mailed their stories in along with Mr. Fawkes himself will be getting a rather large lawsuit for our due of damages. NOBODY will be anonymous then. Good luck. And I trust that you received your w2 already.

2/20/09

From Me

This is the last email you'll receive from me, none of that internet fighting bs. Interesting that the USSS would be interested in anything a private citizen would have to say to another in an email, seeing as though I believe they simply investigate fraud and protect the economy and world leaders. Plus, I imagine they have their hands full at the moment. Also, the truly interesting read were these emails. Words like lawsuit, slander, and Guy Fawkes? Maybe we know who hacked a certain person's email. Wait, is that a federal crime? I guess I'll have to google it. Slander? I'm pretty sure that in this country, even with the patriot act in effect, that someone cannot get sued for sending a "private" email to someone else. Now, a former employer spilling terrible and untrue dribble about a past employee on a public forum? That may be slander. Feel free to email more, like I said, I'm pretty much done, but at the same time amused with all this. But please, don't waste any money for a lawyer for an insignificant nobody though. With bankruptcy, fraud charges (over $1 million dollars), and with only $63 in assets...you need to worry more about your debts.

And its Dennis Feltner, not Dennis Lee. What's the matter, you think I'd be afraid of letting you know who I am and what I think about you? Call it slander all you want, I was there, and if need be, I'll testify. And by the way, I don't appreciate you probing for my address, furthermore in a likely illegal manner!


2/20/09

From Michael Tangredi

You don't have to respond back if you don't want to. I will be honest with you, I was not probing for your address, I have it on your employment file (which is why you already got your w2 form without a response from you). I just needed for you to tie yourself to the slander suit and by giving me your address, that would have done it. But you actually gave me something even better, you spelled out your name for me. Also, the thing about hacking someone's e-mail, yes it is a federal crime (if you could prove it) and that is only if the issue at hand is identity theft. Now, I don't know if you're still in contact with Laura, but the Secret Service was enticed with what she had to say, not what you were saying. You can accuse me of hacking Mr. Fawkes' e-mail, but I do have an affidavit from him saying that those e-mails were being forwarded to me intentionally. Thank you for your time.


2/20/09

From Me

:( Crap! I've been had!


Along with these emails, I also received others from Guy Fawkes after his email was hacked that clearly were not him, and were to the best of my knowledge the Tangredi's.

I'll probably get this case thrown out, or at least one or more of the Tangredi's will be on trial or in jail before it ever has a court date, but in the mean time I'd like to ask the Tangredi's why that signed affidavit is not one of their exhibits?

Also, if you know his name, why are you suing other defendants for further damages if they do not reveal him?

Furthermore, why would you claim to not know his identity or if he even worked for you?

Plus, exhibit P clearly clearly states that Guy Fawkes will not give up his identity to you, and names another person as his co-conspirator. If he in fact wrote this, which it is once again obvious to me that he didn't, where then does this affidavit come into play?

Too many questions to wrap your head around. Good luck not getting caught in your own web of lies guys.

Why The Heck Am I Doing This!

Yeah, this may seem a little stupid. I'm being sued for slander and accused of participating in some "conspiracy" to bring down the Tangredi family, and I start a blog to talk about it? The very thing that started all this in the first place. Yes, I may be a little out of my mind, but more so I'm just stubborn. It's a tendency of mine when confronted with extreme ignorance to meet it with a giant middle finger.

That being said, however, my actual intentions for doing this are somewhat noble. Unfortunately, I have had to occupy more of my time than I would've liked in the last couple months dealing with this lawsuit and have dug up a number of things to aid in answering, defending, and even counter claiming if need be. I hope to use what I have found to aid anyone else that has been dragged into this mess and help them avoid wasting time themselves, or money on lawyers and what not. I'll also be giving little updates when I can regarding my personal experience in this circus, mostly because it's been friggin' hilarious!

Anyway, I leave you with this. Enjoy...


A Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation ("SLAPP") is a lawsuit that is intended to intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition. Winning the lawsuit is not necessarily the intent of the person filing the SLAPP. The plaintiff's goals are accomplished if the defendant succumbs to fear, intimidation, mounting legal costs or simple exhaustion and abandons the criticism. A SLAPP may also intimidate others from participating in the debate.


According to New York Supreme Court Judge J. Nicholas Colabella, "Short of a gun to the head, a greater threat to First Amendment expression can scarcely be imagined." A number of jurisdictions have made such suits illegal, provided that the appropriate standards of journalistic responsibility have been met by the critic.

A New Beginning

This blog is for the purpose of having an open forum for discussion for those being sued by the Tangredi family, as well as for anybody interested in sharing their feelings since the last blog was hacked and deleted. I'll try to check as often as possible, but feel free to post at will in the mean time.