Current location:	Canada
Current mood:	Gobsmacked

JumpCon Founder Files For Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Protection

Chances of fans receiving refunds has now greatly diminished

By MICHAEL HINMAN
May-23-2009
Source: Airlock Alpha

The worst-case outcome for hundreds of people who pre-paid for tickets to attend JumpCon in Boston has been realized. Shane Senter, doing business as New Hampshire Travel Agency, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection Wednesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court's District of New Hampshire.

A Chapter 7 is typically a full-blown liquidation where remaining assets are used to cover liabilities. And like many bankruptcy filings, that means most people will end up with nothing, especially since Senter has listed estimated assets of up to $10,000, but liabilities of between $1 million and $10 million.

It is unclear why Senter, who was indicted last month on two counts of theft and four counts of unfair or deceptive business practices from his failed JumpCon convention, filed under his travel agency, rather than JumpCon LLC, the business entity he conducted the convention planning under. State corporate records in New Hampshire list JumpCon LLC to not be in good standing, while no entity for "New Hampshire Travel Agency" could be found. JumpCon LLC is listed as his business deeper in the bankruptcy files, but not on the cover page.

However, a list of creditors included in the bankruptcy filing include charges Senter incurred from the failed convention, and likely includes a number of ticket holders as well.

Senter is being represented in the bankruptcy action by Deborah Notinger of Donchess Notinger &Tamposi of Nashua, N.H.

The court filings reveal some interesting aspects of Senter. Over the last three years, he has received nearly $10,500 in disability payments through Social Security, making about $700 a month in SSDI and food stamps.

He also lists minimal assets including five gaming chairs valued at $125, a pair of virtual reality glasses at $120, various games and a gaming system at $588 and a $120 projector.

Senter lists only $1,900 in total assets, of which $1,300 is claimed exempt under federal bankruptcy laws.

His biggest debt is to Hilton Hotels Corp. for $4.6 million after losing an arbitration case against them. He also owes $2.5 million to various hotels, including $345,150 to the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel and Spa in Montgomery, Ala., and $10,000 to the Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers where he was supposed to host his first JumpCon.

He also owes $10,387 to Louis Trapani of Oceanside, N.Y., for 10 weeks of wages and expenses.

Senter has maintained that the JumpCon convention was just an event that simply gone bad, but how someone making just $700 a month could incur debts of up to $10 million has many fans and victims scratching their heads.

On top of the prepaid tickets still owed to hundreds of fans, Senter also still owes some $542,125 to a number of celebrity guests that he had to cancel. Those celebrities include:

- Edward James Olmos of "Battlestar Galactica" for $60,000
- "Battlestar Galactica" actress Mary McDonnell for $40,000
- Highlander actor Adrian Paul for $22,500
- "Doctor Who" actor Frazer Hines for $22,000
- Popular Stargate recurring actor Cliff Simon for $21,000
- "Star Trek: Enterprise" actor John Billingsley and wife Bonita Fredericy of "Chuck" for $15,000
- "Andromeda" and "Hercules" star Kevin Sorbo for $15,000
- Claudia Christian of "Babylon 5" for $13,000
- "Star Trek: The Next Generation" actress Denise Crosby for $12,000
- Character actress Musetta Vander for $12,000
- Vanessa Angel of "Weird Science" for $12,000
- "Star Trek: Voyager" and "Stargate: Atlantis" actor Robert Picardo for $11,000
- Shannon Sylvia of "Ghost Hunters International" for $10,125
- Andrew Divoff from "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" for $10,000
- "Doctor Who" actress Daphne Ashbrook for $10,000
- "The X-Files" and "Lone Gunmen" actor Dean Haglund for $10,000
- "Red Dwarf" actress Hattie Hayridge for $10,000
- "Blake's 7" actress Jacqueline Pearce for $10,000
- "Babylon 5" and "Lost" actress Mira Furlan for $10,000
- "Babylon 5's" Peter Jurasik for $10,000
- "Doctor Who" guest actor Terry Molloy for $10,000
- "Masters of Horror" actor William Forsythe for $10,000
- "Battlestar Galactica: Razor" and "Andromeda" actor Steven Bacic for $9,500
- "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" recurring actress Louise Fletcher for $9,000
- "Stargate SG-1" actor Tony Amendola for $8,500
- "Stargate: Atlantis" actress Andee Frizzell for $8,000
- Star Wars game voice actor Cully Fredrickson for $8,000
- "Flash Gordon" actress Gina Holden for $8,000
- "24" actor Gregory Itzin for $8,000
- "Star Trek: Insurrection" actor Michael Welch for $8,000
- "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" actor Richard Steven Horvitz for $8,000
- "Moonraker" actor Richard Kiel for $8,000
- Brian Harnois of "Ghost Hunters International" for $7,500
- "Andromeda" actor Gordon Michael Woolvett for $7,500
- J.R. Bourne of "The Dead Zone" for $7,500
- "Star Trek: Voyager" actor Tim Russ for $7,000
- "Doctor Who" actor John Levene for $7,000
- "Watchmen" actor Dan Payne for $6,500
- Eugene W. Roddenberry for $6,500
- "Stargate SG-1" actor Gary Jones for $6,500
- "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" actor Barry Jenner for $6,000
- "Doctor Who" actress Mary Tamm for $6,000
- "Lost" special guest Julie Adams for $5,500
- "Star Trek" guest star France Nuyen for $5,000
- "Killer Klowns From Outer Space" actor Grant Cramer for $5,000
- Recurring Star Trek franchise actor James Horan for $5,000
- "Frogs" actress Lynn Borden for $5,000
- Original "Mighty Joe Young" actress Terry Moore for $5,000
- Actor William Berlinger for $4,500
- Highlander actress Elizabeth Gracen for $4,000
- "Star Trek" guest actor Jack Donner for $4,000
- "Babylon 5" actor Jason Carter for $4,000
- "Earth: Final Conflict" actor Robert Leeshock for $4,000
- "Doctor Who" actress Deborah Watling for $3,500
- "Earth: Final Conflict's" Anita La Selva for $3,000
- Nell Wilson of "Who Wants To Be A Superhero" for $3,000
- Voice actor Vic Mignogna for $2,500
- "Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda" actor David Winning for $2,000
- Highlander actor F. Braun McAsh for $2,000
- Professional wrestler and Star Trek uncredited guest actor Scott L. Schwartz for $2,000
- "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi" actor Dermot Crowley for $1,500
- "Babylon 5" actor Stephen Furst for $1,500

Other actors, such as Bruce Boxleitner from "Babylon 5" and Connor Trinneer from "Star Trek: Enterprise," also are owed money, but the amount owed was not listed in bankruptcy filings.

A meeting with creditors is set for June 11.

(Post a new comment)

	bigbigtruck 2009-05-29 04:56 pm UTC (link)
	Wait, how did he establish any of these contracts without showing adequate financial backing? (Reply to this)(Thread)

	justjenn 2009-05-29 05:30 pm UTC (link)
	Maybe he thought he was going to get a gov't bailout? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sheep 2009-05-29 05:20 pm UTC (link)
	Killer Klowns From Outer Space ...? (Reply to this)(Thread)

	WARNING: Link not safe for those with coulrophobia! komorebi 2009-06-01 06:15 am UTC (link)
	Yes, it exists. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: WARNING: Link not safe for those with coulrophobia! sheep 2009-06-01 08:03 am UTC (link)
	Killer Clowns from Outer Space: It's Crazy At least they have themselves sussed out. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	shadwing 2009-05-29 06:30 pm UTC (link)
	... Yet another nail in the coffin for 'fan-run' or 'non-corporate' conventions, it'll get to the point that unless you have a huge long lasting track record, or the backing of a established business most convention sites won't give you the time of day. (Reply to this)

	wtf 2009-05-29 07:37 pm UTC (link)
	I am SHOCKED. SHOCKED, I say. I feel bad for the fans that lost money on this, but this con was a textbook case of DOIN IT WRONG from day one. (Reply to this)

	wtf 2009-05-29 07:45 pm UTC (link)
	Oh! Also! I think the most interesting part is the list of monies owed to actors, likely appearance fees. But that's just the con-running nerd in me. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	bigbigtruck 2009-05-29 08:18 pm UTC (link)
	I'm surprised the appearance fees are still owed even though the appearances were cancelled. I guess because the actor set aside that slot of time to do con stuff instead of working? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	wtf 2009-05-29 08:47 pm UTC (link)
	I wonder if they're cancellation fees, or the contract stipulates the appearance fees are still owed if the con is cancelled? Another thing I wonder is why he booked SO many guests when any five or so is plenty for one con. Just how many cons did this guy plan? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	erototoxin 2009-05-30 12:25 am UTC (link)
	Quite a few. Man, was he in over his head. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	criticalcricket 2009-05-30 03:03 am UTC (link)
	He had planned 40 cons, with some of the guests appearing at multiple ones. So it's not like he screwed them over for just one appearance, some of them got screwed for multiple appearances. (Reply to this)(Parent)

sockpuppeteer
2009-05-30 12:20 am UTC (link)

These seem like kill fees to me and considering the actors and the dollar figures it gets more likely.

I have handled a lot of various personalities actors, wrestlers, sports stars, musicians and the like at various venues and many have a kill-fee built into the contract these days to even agree to appear. It is like putting down money on a venue to reserve it for the time you want to hold your event.

Strangely a couple of agents contacted me about whether I was free for a couple of those JumpCon dates to help out. I had agreed to a couple before the whole thing fell apart. Glad I didn't get any plane tickets in the works before it dissolved.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	sheep 2009-05-29 08:47 pm UTC (link)
	I stupidly thought con appearances were done on a volunteer basis, but then I've never been to a con. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	wtf 2009-05-29 08:49 pm UTC (link)
	That's not stupid! Sci-fi cons generally pay lots of money, while anime cons often don't pay anything on top of food/travel/etc. Nowadays, appearance fees are actually becoming more common at anime cons too. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	miraba 2009-05-31 04:42 am UTC (link)
	It's not a matter of genre. For-profit conventions pay lots of money, non-profit pay less (if any). And yes, there are plenty of non-profit scifi conventions. Most of them are not Dragoncon. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	bigbigtruck 2009-05-29 09:14 pm UTC (link)
	Some are, some aren't. The absolute baseline is "room, food, and travel", though. (Reply to this)(Parent)

spacelogic
2009-05-29 08:16 pm UTC (link)

Backstory, please? I'm confused about the celebrity bit -- how little notice did he give them, to have inconvenienced them to those dollar amounts? What exactly did this guy pull, generally? (And why such different amounts to different celebs? I wouldn't have thought Peter Jurasik would be that much more valuable than Stephen Furst, though I understand why Olmos would be so far ahead of anyone else given the modern-ness factor.)

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	criticalcricket 2009-05-29 08:34 pm UTC (link)
	Here's my fandom lounge post on it from last year. It was super suspicious from the get-go, saying they were going to do 40 events in 40 cities over the course of a year and it would be jam packed with stars. People who bought tickets definitely got a con, just not the one they hoped for. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	spacelogic 2009-05-29 09:35 pm UTC (link)
	Thanks. reads Um, wow. I can't decide if I'm more surprised that that worked or pissed at the squickwad that robbed all those people, because, damn. That's obscene. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	criticalcricket 2009-05-29 09:56 pm UTC (link)
	No prob. Looks like greycoupon did a bunch more jumpcon posts and even made a community, Jumpconcons, for further reading. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	quantumreality 2009-05-30 12:25 am UTC (link)
	OT: I love your Tintin icon. :) (Reply to this)(Thread)

	justjenn 2009-05-30 02:07 am UTC (link)
	Thanks! Feel free to to take but please credit gurudata (Reply to this)(Parent)

tachikoma01
2009-06-01 12:48 pm UTC (link)

So... he owes approximately 7.1 million in hotel fees alone. 7,100,000 dollars divided among 40 planned events equates out to 177,500 per hotel agreement (some will obviously be higher than others depending on the city, the other demands for that function space, and how much function space/how big of room block they agreed to sell.)

Question to people who con-com very large events: Is that amount NORMAL? I won't ask you for specifics, I know that's rude. BUT it seems at least twice what it should have been based on my own experiences. And if it is high- does that mean they didn't even try to bid/negotiate for contracts and just took whatever price the hotel threw at them up front?

Reading the past posts, I strongly get the feel that the 'royalty' running these events wanted to be instant BNFs, and bask in the glow of everyone praising how wonderful they were for giving them the privileged of attending their amaaaaaaaaaaaazing convention.

But from my own experience having many friends among con-com of different conventions, you don't get roses and panties thrown at you. At best, yeah you do get recognition and warm-fuzz glow happies from contented fans (and the friendship-support of the members of staff), but you also get some guy in a stained hentai T-shirt in the grocery store who yells "HEY [Your name!]" and waves at you like you're his BFF, while you scratch your head and go 'Who is he and how does he know my name?' At worst, if someone goes to consuite and finds there are no gluten and dairy free sugarless wafers of the specific brand they like, they'll seek you out personally to rail about how your head of consuite needs to be fired OMG NOW while they grovel at your feet.

And at worst-worst, you get to deal with assholes and borderline pedos.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

sockpuppeteer
2009-06-01 08:17 pm UTC (link)

I think the hotel fees are that high because the events didn't happen so he didn't make his room blocks so there are additional fees plus penalties and interest on the debt. I am surprised that he could get that many hotels to agree to block out a weekend. Does anyone know if they all in the same chain?

I totally agree with con-com comments. The worst has to be when the con com has to deal with restraining orders and attendees. It's rare but it does happen.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

tachikoma01
2009-06-01 11:13 pm UTC (link)

I think more than half that amount was from the Hilton alone, if I remember correctly. I also wonder how he managed to get them to block off so much for him, since in my experience dealing with hotels, they're usually pretty wary of brand-new conventions.

[I guess I'm technically con-com myself, but I'm just a secretary and don't do any public announcements so none of the BNF crazy rubs off on me.]

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	brennalarose 2009-06-02 12:44 pm UTC (link)
	glances nervously at Darkover Please don't die! You're a family tradition for us! I don't wanna go to corporate cons! Seriously, this sucks harder than a black hole vacuum cleaner on the beach. (Reply to this)