Two more adult companies have moved forward with lawsuits against unresponsive payment processor iBill, while Badpuppy has sent the company to collections.
In the process of filing litigation are Seattle-based GAE Productions and Orlando, Florida-based WebMedia.
IBill allegedly owes WebMedia $22,212.50. A letter demanding payment was sent to iBill on March 10 and so far has been ignored, according to John Bolanovich of the Orlando firm Bogin, Munns & Munns, WebMedia’s attorney. Bolanovich anticipates filing a civil suit in Florida’s Orange County by April 6 if the matter goes unresolved.
WebMedia co-owner Shari Figueroa told AVNOnline.com that they would request $100,000 in the suit, not only for the money owed, but also for related expenses and because of iBill’s refusal to turn over the company’s client database.
“We’re losing the clients that aren’t getting re-billed anymore from the database they refused to give us. They refused to give us our client database when they were giving other people their accounts. We had to cancel all of our members,” Figueroa said.
“Since they stopped paying us without letting us know, we had some checks that bounced. That just threw our whole business off. So we’re suing for damages as well.”
GAE Productions is moving forward with its lawsuit after iBill failed to respond to papers served on March 24. GAE president John Guth told AVNOnline.com the processor owes his company a few thousand dollars, but his lawsuit, which will be filed in Florida’s Broward County, will ask for five times the outstanding amount.
“There’s an element of principle to this whole thing. It’s just business ethics, just getting what’s owed to me. What is owed to me is going to cover some major business expenses I have when it comes to paying the government,” Guth said.
“It’s not a matter of wanting to do this. It’s a hassle to me. It’s a hassle to my family—it’s a pain,” he continued. “It’s going to take some extra capital out of my pocket, money that I had allotted to do other things [with]. Because of all of this I had to put some productions on hold. I should be suing them for more than five times what is due me because of all the things this is holding up on my end. When you look at the big picture and the avalanche that this creates, I’m losing a lot of money because of it.”
The GAE and WebMedia actions follow lawsuits filed by Chi Chi LaRue’s CCLR Internet, Bondage.com parent FRNK Technology Group, and The Score Group, which has a hearing scheduled for April 4.
Meanwhile, Badpuppy owner Bill Pinyon, who said he had to lay off two employees and close one of the company’s websites due to iBill’s nonpayment, decided to take a different approach to his situation, filing with Omaha, Nebraska-based collection agency Allied National.
“If the collection agency doesn’t get a resolution, their team will take it into litigation. It’s the amount they [iBill] owe, versus the amount I’m going to pay out. It didn’t warrant justifying full legal action,” Pinyon told AVNOnline.com.
Allied works on a contingency basis and usually determines whether a company intends to pay their debts within a three-week period. If Allied determines the company in question will not pay, they refer the matter to a network of attorneys.
“It doesn’t matter if they have money or not,” Allied National Managing Director Mike David told AVNOnline.com. “If they don’t want to pay, they’re not going to pay. We try to test their intentions, their attitude, their demeanor, and if they have the desire to pay, but not the ability, then we work with them. If they have the ability but don’t have the desire, then we sue them.”
As for iBill, a message left for CEO Charles Prast went unreturned. Corporate Revitalization Partners (CRP) was contracted in February to restructure iBill. Although Scott Avila, the managing partner of CRP, told AVNOnline.com on March 4 that terms of that contract were not met, he said iBill is still moving ahead with the restructuring.
“We have reduced our role recently, not terminated it,” Avila said. “IBill is currently implementing the restructuring plan developed, including guidance developed with the assistance of CRP.”
Some European webmasters reported receiving back-payments from the company on March 29.
