The firm that asked for a receiver to take over the assets of residential developer StoryBuilt is now trying to end the receivership.
What was supposed to be a short, rehabilitative receivership has turned into a liquidation effort that’s inhibiting the Austin-based firm’s recovery, GET Marketing claimed in a recent Travis County District Court filing.
The firm is asking the court, which approved its request for a receiver in 2023, to schedule a status conference in which the parties can come up with a plan to exit the receivership.
The request comes three months after Storybuilt co-founder Ryan Diepenbrock sued Stapleton Group, the company running the receivership. Diepenbrock claimed in the suit that Stapleton enriched itself at the expense of investors and mismanaged company assets.
“The only constituency being served by this continuation of this receivership are the estate professionals,” GET wrote in the latest filing.
Before the receiver was appointed, GET principal Trey Cook put up $1.4 million for StoryBuilt’s administrative expenses on the condition that the money would be paid out first, according to the filing. GET fears estate professionals are getting paid before certificate holders, like Cook.
Since the receivership began, Stapleton has tried to sell off StoryBuilt’s portfolio, once estimated at $2 billion. It also sued former StoryBuilt principals Diepenbrock, Anthony Siela and Chap Shepler, accusing them of “egregious mismanagement” and misuse of investor funds.
The receiver said it shifted strategies when it determined that company representatives provided “wildly optimistic opinions and information” about the company at the beginning of the process.
Stapleton, which did not comment on the recent filing, previously said it cooperated with the Department of Justice, the IRS’ criminal investigation unit, the Department of Labor, the FBI, the Texas State Comptroller and the Texas Workforce Commission in the agencies’ investigations into the company.
Meanwhile, former StoryBuilt employees secured a win in a class action lawsuit against the company.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Dustin Howell recommended the group of 83 former employees be treated as a class in its claims that StoryBuilt violated the WARN Act when it laid off its employees in July 2023 without notice.
The WARN Act requires companies enacting mass layoffs to provide 60 days notice.
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