Assets of Yacht Path International and its related entities were purchased by a sole bidder Monday for $250,000—an amount the company’s co-founder calls “an absolute joke.”

Documents filed in a Florida U.S. Bankruptcy Court say the sale of the yacht shipping business and its sister companies was approved for $250,000 Monday because “no other person or entity appeared at the sale approval hearing wishing to participate in bidding or to make a higher and better offer.”

Yacht Path Holdings LLC, identified only as a “New Jersey limited liability company,” was the initial bidder for the company’s assets. Because there were no other bidders at auction, Yacht Path Holdings got the company for its original bid. There was no website for the company, although the name was on file at the state of New Jersey’s Online Business Entity Filing website. The sale agreement signed by Michael Uhl of Yacht Path Holdings LLC grants control of the company’s assets, as well as responsibility for all liens except for one that is in dispute.

Yacht Path International co-founder Kevin Cummings called the $250,000 purchase price “an absolute joke.” The court-appointed trustee handling the sale of the companies didn’t return calls to Trade Only Today, nor did the attorneys representing all the parties in the case.

“If that’s the case, then the trustee did a really poor job for the creditors,” Cummings told Trade Only Today, adding that the equipment cost him $1.8 million to purchase. “If they can honestly come up and say they came up with $250,000 as a purchase price, then the system is flawed.”

Yacht Path’s assets were frozen after myriad claims were filed by customers who said they either had to pay twice to get their yachts shipped — once up front and another time when the yacht reached its destination — or they paid to have yachts shipped that never made the trip.

Cummings continues to defend the company he and his brother, Dennis, launched in 2001, saying it saw three consecutive years of losses because of a poor economy, low freight rates and high competition. Then a failed merger led to an initial lawsuit that prompted a judge to freeze the assets and business proceedings of the company. That led to the inability to pay freight.

When the trustee was appointed, Cummings said Yacht Path International had a ship with 39 yachts headed to Vancouver that was stopped. “We were prevented from performing a voyage that would have seen a profit of more than $250,000 on behalf of the creditors.”

Cummings says the loss of Yacht Path International will negatively affect the industry because it leaves only two companies that will perform the same service.

“It’s not only [about] the customers who were affected and the money they lost in the bankruptcy,” he said. “It’s the fact that there’s a big portion of the industry now that’s disconnected.”

— Reagan Haynes

Originally posted on Trade Only.