The interior of the Patton has teak woodwork and a bathroom with a shower. (Courtesy Wolf Rigs)
Exasperated by its failure to turn over financial documents, a federal judge has ordered the bankrupt camper company Wolf Rigs to shut down operations and sell off assets.
“Given the circumstances of this case, given the delay, given the fact that at this point there are still no financials from which anybody can figure out anything, I’m going to convert this case to a Chapter 7,” U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kimberley Tyson said at a hearing on Sept. 11.
The company has $600,000 in assets, including a prototype of its Patton camper — valued at $350,000 — machinery, welding equipment and $45,000 in accounts receivable. Under a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, all of it must be liquidated and distributed among creditors.
To prevent that from happening, Wolf Rigs is appealing Tyson’s decision. The company’s CEO and lawyer did not answer BusinessDen’s requests to discuss their case.
Wolf Rigs welds aluminum frames on refurbished Humvees to create a $350,000 camper that it calls the Patton. The Littleton company was founded in 2020 and never turned a profit.
Instead, it has been sued for allegedly defrauding investors and for taking deposits but not building vehicles. Last October, the company was ordered by a judge to pay $630,000 to James and Michelle Smith, a couple in Douglas County who became friends with Wolf Rigs CEO Reed Gerdes, invested $500,000, and then sued when their investment evaporated.
Wolf Rigs sold the Patton, built on a refurbished Humvee, for $350,000. (Photo courtesy of Wolf Rigs)
Gerdes, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft in an unrelated case in 2021 and has a long history of bankruptcies, declared Wolf Rigs bankrupt in February. Gerdes’ plan at that time was to find an investor, reorganize the company, and repay creditors with future profits.
“I’m not running from the debt,” he said then. “I just haven’t had the money to pay the debt quickly enough. If things turn around, and I believe they will, everyone will be made whole.”
But the bankruptcy case languished for months. Michael Totaro, an attorney for Wolf Rigs, blamed “a severe lack of recordkeeping” and poor management during an August hearing. He said the company would hire an accountant and manager to turn things around.
The Smiths and others who were owed money openly doubted whether that would happen.
“All of the money is gone,” Jill Burton, who paid for a Patton she never received and is owed $390,000, said at the August hearing. “I know that he spent all of our money.”
Meanwhile, new creditors emerged. Mason Barr, an Ohio man not initially listed among those owed money from the company, told the U.S. Bankruptcy Court that he paid $350,000 for a Patton at the start of 2023 and never received it. He accused Gerdes of theft.
“I have very big concerns about this case and, really, about how sincere Mr. Gerdes is about getting this company back and working,” Tyson said Aug. 20, before agreeing to give Wolf Rigs one more month to solve its problems. “He hasn’t been doing what he needs to do.”
One month later, when all sides met at another hearing, jilted customers remained peeved.
“The court has given this debtor plenty of time to come into compliance and provide the basic financial information that is necessary and required for a case to move forward,” said attorney Pat Vellone, who represents Joanna Welsh, a Wolf Rigs customer who paid about $347,000 for a vehicle that was never built, “and this debtor has utterly failed to do so.”
Totaro, speaking for Wolf Rigs, asked for another month to return the company to solid footing. Wolf Rigs had hired a new accountant who was hard at work, Totaro told Tyson.
“I think that puts us in reasonably good shape. The accountant said it would take approximately 30 days to do everything, they’re going to jump it up in their schedule,” he said.
But the Denver judge had had enough. She ordered Wolf Rigs to shut down immediately.
“The court,” she said, “has given ample opportunity for this debtor to get its act together.”
