LAURIE SELBER SILVERSTEIN, Bankruptcy Judge.
Before the Court is a motion for judgment on the pleadings in response to the Trustee's complaint asserting preference and fraudulent conveyance claims. For the reasons that follow, the Court will grant the motion and dismiss the complaint, without prejudice and with leave to amend, if appropriate.
On March 5, 2014, United Tax Group (the "Debtor") filed a voluntary petition under chapter 7 of title 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. Plaintiff George L. Miller is the chapter 7 trustee. Prior to filing bankruptcy, the Debtor was in the business of providing tax preparation services to consumers. Per the Statement of Corporate Ownership filed with the petition: (i) Allerand LLC owns 100% of the Debtor's capital interest and 90.01% of the Debtor's profit interest; and (ii) ECW Investco, LLC held the remaining 9.99% of the Debtor's profit interest.
SWZ Financial II, LLC is an entity that is 50% owned by Allerand and 50% owned and/or controlled by Richard J. Sabella. On or about April 11, 2012, SWZ and the Debtor entered into a credit agreement whereby SWZ would loan Debtor up to $1 million at 18% interest. SWZ was obligated to advance $501,000 at closing. Payments were interest only for the first six months, with the balance of the note paid over the next 36 months. The loan was funded (in the amount of $501,000) on April 11, 2012. Defendant Edward Welke ("Welke") was a manager and/or managing member of SWZ.
The records for the Debtor's PNC bank account indicate that, prior to the bankruptcy filing, the Debtor made transfers from March 7, 2012 through October 1, 2013 totaling $821,402.69 on an "AmEx" account. Plaintiff alleges that the transfers were made to Mr. Welke for his benefit, and that he was the initial transferee or the beneficial transferee of the transfers. Plaintiff also alleges that the Debtor's tax returns "suggest" that the Debtor was balance sheet insolvent at the beginning of 2012.
On March 3, 2016, the Trustee filed this adversary proceeding against Mr. Welke and John Does 1-100.
The Court has subject matter over this adversary proceeding. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 157 and 1334. Notwithstanding Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure 7008 and 7012, neither party alleges whether the counts in the Complaint assert core or not core causes of action. It appears that they are core. See 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2)(F), (H). Even if not, however, "[t]he Court has the power to enter an order on a motion to dismiss even if the matter is non-core or the Court lacks the authority to enter a final order on the merits."
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(c) provides: "After the pleadings are closed—but early enough not to delay a trial—a party may move for judgment on the pleadings."
In reviewing the complaint under Rule 12(b)(6), the court must first accept all well-pled facts as true, but may disregard legal conclusions.
In order to survive a motion to dismiss, a preference complaint must include: "(a) an identification of the nature and amount of each antecedent debt and (b) an identification of each alleged preference transfer by (i) date [of the transfer], (ii) name of debtor/transferor, (iii) name of transferee and (iv) the amount of transfer."
The Court agrees with the Defendant. With respect to the alleged preferences, while the Trustee has identified a date of transfer, "an account," and the amount of each transfer, he has not identified the transferee of each transfer. Further, the Trustee has not identified the nature and amount of each alleged antecedent debt. The only debt alleged in the Complaint—and thus the only debt that could be an antecedent debt—is the debt to SWZ. In the answering brief, however, the Trustee alleges that the antecedent debt is the "credit card obligations" referenced in paragraph 14 of the Complaint. The credit card obligations are not alleged in the Complaint and the court will not infer them given the pleading of another debt. Further, even assuming the Court could infer credit card obligations as the antecedent debt, the Court cannot infer the amount of each credit card obligation nor the date on which each obligation was incurred. Payment of an invoice is not necessarily payment of an antecedent debt.
The Trustee has not sufficiently pled all elements of a preferential payment.
To survive a motion to dismiss on a fraudulent transfer claim under § 548(a)(1)(B) of the Bankruptcy Code, a plaintiff must allege more than the statutory elements.
Defendant contends that Count II merely parrots the elements of the statute and that the Trustee neither alleges facts showing that it was insolvent on the date of each transfer or that Debtor received less than reasonably equivalent value in exchange for the payments made on the AmEx account. The Trustee contends that it has sufficiently pled insolvency by alleging possible balance sheet insolvency at the beginning of calendar year 2012, which predates each alleged preferential transfer. He further argues that he should not have to "prove a negative" with respect to reasonably equivalent value as there is an "absence of available proof" to demonstrate to the Trustee that the Debtor received reasonably equivalent value for the transfers.
The allegations of insolvency are not enough. The Trustee alleges that: "[t]he Debtor's records, including the Debtor's tax returns, suggest that the Debtor was insolvent on a "balance sheet" basis at the beginning and end of calendar year(s) [sic] 2012."
Further, the Trustee fails to set out a factual basis for his contention that the Debtor received less than a reasonably equivalent value for the transfers on the AmEx account.
Finally, the Court rejects the argument that the Trustee can skirt the requirement that he present at least some information of the value the Debtor received in exchange for the alleged constructively fraudulent transfers or that he should be entitled to proceed with discovery to gain more information based on the blanket assertions in the Complaint. Simply asserting that Defendant is an insider and that there is an "extensive web of connections between Welke, the Debtor and [SWZ]" provides no basis for the Court to infer that the Debtor did not receive any value in exchange for payment of an AmEx account, or that Mr. Welke received a benefit therefrom. Under these circumstances, the Court cannot find that the Trustee has shown that the claim in Court II is facially plausible.
In Count III, the Trustee alleges that the transfers relating to the AmEx account were constructively fraudulent under Florida law as to present and future creditors for the same reasons set forth in Court II. In Count IV, the Trustee alleges that the transfers on the AmEx account were constructively fraudulent under Florida law as to present creditors because the Debtor did not receive a reasonably equivalent value, was insolvent when the transfers were made, or the Debtor became insolvent as a result of the transfers. Again, the Trustee merely parrots the Florida statute. For the same reasons as set forth above, the Court cannot find that the Trustee has shown that the claims in Court III and IV are facially plausible.
In Court V, the Trustee alleges that Welke was an insider for purposes of the Bankruptcy Code and applicable Florida law, and, as such, any transfer made to him was constructively fraudulent as to present creditors. As presented in the Complaint, the Florida law permits recovery of a fraudulent transfer to an insider if it was for an antecedent debt, the debtor was insolvent at the time, and the insider had reasonable cause to believe that the debtor was insolvent. As above, there are no facts pled to support this claim, but merely conclusory statements parroting the Florida statute. Accordingly, the Court cannot find that the Trustee has shown that the claims in Count V are facially plausible.
Counts VI and VII seek recovery of any avoided transfers under § 550 of the Bankruptcy Code and the Florida analogue, respectively. Because the Court is dismissing Counts I-V of the Complaint, the Court will dismiss these counts as well.
In his answering brief, the Trustee, alternatively, seeks permission to amend the Complaint to address any deficiencies. Mr. Welke objects to this request arguing that the information within the possession of the Trustee, including the bank statements, show that all of the transfers made on account of the AmEx account were for legitimate business expenses, with the majority of those expenses being lead generating accounts. Mr. Welke, thus, argues that "these facts show both futility and bad faith" on the part of the Trustee.
The "facts" that Mr. Welke alludes to are not part of the record of this adversary proceeding. The Court, therefore, cannot make a determination in the context of this motion for judgment on the pleadings that the filing of an amended complaint would be futile or in bad faith, so amendment will be permitted.
For the reasons set forth above, the Court will grant the motion and dismiss the Complaint without prejudice to the filing of an amended complaint which adequately pleads facts to support the Trustee's claims. An order follows.