The Internal Revenue Service and LeNature's trustee are at odds over how much, if any, the bankrupt Latrobe beverage company owes Uncle Sam.
The tab is $20.8 million, says the IRS for a priority claim, plus another $11.6 million unsecured claim, according to the IRS.
Trustee R. Todd Neilson said the government owes the company a "seven-figure" refund because the company overpaid the government from 2002 to 2005 because it submitted bogus financial information to the government.
U.S. Chief Bankruptcy Judge M. Bruce McCullough will settle the dispute in January when he will preside over a trial.
"I'm not asking them to write us a check," Neilson said. "Some day I will, but not right now."
An IRS spokesman said the agency cannot discuss individual tax cases.
Regardless, Neilson said the tax dispute is a "looming specter" hanging over the confirmation plan to pay creditors and threatens the outcome of the bankruptcy case that began last November, Neilson said.
Neilson said the confirmation plan, devised by attorneys for secured and unsecured creditors, does not include paying the government such a sum. He said LeNature's paid taxes based on inaccurate financial figures submitted by the company. Neilson has filed amended tax returns for those years with the IRS which, he says, refuses to recalculate the company's tax liability.
He called the IRS claims "inappropriate and unjustified."
"The problem is, we believe, is that (former CEO Gregory) Podlucky fabricated income levels of LeNature's in an egregious manner, and a reasonable analysis of the surrounding facts will lead a reasonable person to that conclusion," Neilson said. "The IRS won't return phone calls. We've given them information."
The settlement plan details the order creditors will be paid and how much they will receive. Bankruptcy documents indicate the debt ranges from $820 million to $1 billion.
Once the plan is approved, Neilson said his job as trustee ends and a liquidating trustee will step in to pursue litigation against third parties who creditors allege are responsible for the company's financial collapse and subsequent criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Pittsburgh.
