Convicted chair thief and serial public disclosure law offender Tim Eyman isn’t abiding by his agreement to make $10,000 monthly installment payments to the people of the State of Washington, so Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office is moving to have a Chapter 11 trustee appointed to oversee his estate, according to newly filed federal court documents scrutinized by NPI.
In a pleading dated yesterday, attorneys for the state notified the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Washington that they haven’t received payments from Eyman for either this month or the last month and that their most recent messages to Eyman and his counsel have been unreturned.
Eyman was supposed to make $10,000 payments by September 15th and October 15th as required by Section 6.09 of his court-approved bankruptcy plan.
Eyman will officially be in default as of tomorrow (Saturday, October 30th) if he doesn’t provide the $10,000 September payment that he owes.
In anticipation of that happening, the State is asking Judge Marc Barreca to appoint a Chapter 11 trustee to oversee Eyman’s estate.
“Debtor Eyman’s unwillingness to be transparent in his financial dealings and his decision to simply stop making payments without explanation requires appointment of a trustee,” the State argued.
“It is in the interests of the creditors to have a trustee manage the estate, determine the reason for Debtor Eyman’s failure to make the required payments when his last quarterly reporting establishes that he has the funds to make these payments, and if necessary, distributing assets.”
The State is also asking Barreca to be allowed to “record and perfect the judgment entered in State v. Eyman, Thurston County Superior Court, Case No. 17–2‑01546–34, in Snohomish and King Counties.”
The aforementioned court case is the main civil lawsuit against Tim Eyman for his blatant violations of Chapter 42.17A RCW, the Fair Campaign Practices Act. Eyman was found guilty of having violated the FCPA earlier this year by Thurston County Superior Court Judge James Dixon and ordered to pay a multimillion dollar fine.
Snohomish County is where Eyman has resided for most of the last twenty years; King County is where he now resides following his separation from Karen Eyman.
Karen Eyman recently made her own filing with the United States Bankruptcy Court, in which she requested relief from a stay to finalize her divorce from Tim.
In an October 6th declaration, Karen Eyman explained to Judge Barreca that until recently, she has been unrepresented by her own counsel, and that Tim has been stringing her along and dragging out the divorce proceedings.
Specifically, she said: “My soon-to-be ex-husband told me time and time again that it would happen any day and that it was being held up because of one issue or another with the bankruptcy and/or the property. I was completely unrepresented in this proceeding and in Tim’s bankruptcy proceeding.”
Tim Eyman announced in November of 2018 (almost three years ago) that he was filing for bankruptcy and divorce. At the time, he was not actually bankrupt, but was attempting to throw a monkey wrench into Bob Ferguson’s efforts to hold him accountable for violating the Fair Campaign Practices Act.
When that scheme failed, Eyman tried to have the bankruptcy case dismissed. But Judge Barreca wisely refused to dismiss the case. Now Eyman really is bankrupt, and is apparently so low on funds that he can’t make his required monthly payments. The last regular report Eyman submitted was filed months ago, so we don’t know what his current cash position is, but it can’t be good.
The State’s filing describes recent events as follows:
The State made every effort to confirm that Debtor Eyman made the September payment. On September 13, 2021, State’s counsel emailed Debtor Eyman’s counsel to confirm the monthly transfer was made to the claims reserve account and the September check would be mailed to the State. On September 17, State’s counsel again sought to confirm this information.
On September 22, 2021, when the State had still not received the check, State’s counsel sent a follow up email.
On September 23, 2021, Debtor’s counsel forwarded a photo of a check and a stamped envelope that was addressed to the State, but with no postmark. The check has never been received.
On September 30, 2021, the State issued a Notice of Default under Section 9.01 of the Plan’s default provision. Debtor Eyman was given 30 days to cure default, which expires on October 30, 2021.
Since issuing this notice of default, the State has not been contacted by the Debtor or his counsel. Debtor Eyman has also failed to file his post-confirmation report that was due on October 21, 2021.
These recent events are all part of a long pattern of desperate obfuscation and stonewalling by Eyman. He is always trying to buy himself more time in the hopes of being able to skate away from his problems.
Fake it till you make it could be his personal motto.
Though his miserable circumstances are entirely of his own making, Eyman constantly portrays himself in public as the victim of a railroad.
Eyman’s favorite foil nowadays is Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who has refused to allow Eyman to wriggle out of being held accountable.
Although Eyman’s anger is misplaced, it is understandable, because Eyman has tried really, really, really hard through a long series of machinations and manipulations to dodge accountability for his past behavior.
With no sympathetic Republican governor and no Republican attorney general available to let him off the hook he put himself on, Eyman seems trapped in a downward spiral. He has been unable to restart his initiative factory and the financial gifts he regularly asks for from his friends have not been sufficient to allow him to continue to live his high-expense lifestyle while paying his debts.
A trustee probably should have been appointed in this bankruptcy case months ago, but Judge Barreca kindly decided to let Eyman have a go at carrying out his obligations under the terms of his bankruptcy plan. Eyman has seemingly now blown that chance. So it’s time for a trustee to step in and salvage what’s left of the complete and total mess that Eyman has made of his estate.
A copy of the State’s filing is below if you’d like to read it yourself.
Tim Eyman in default: State requests trustee