Former suppliers and customers continue to feel the fallout of Office Concepts of Missouri’s mid-November closure, after a quarter century in business.
Two weeks after Office Concepts closed its doors at 1723 W. Sunshine St., a Springfield leasing company filed suit against the 25-year-old copier and printer service and equipment provider. Additionally, a couple of former customers of Office Concepts are claiming leasing irregularities through a separate New Jersey leasing company.
Owner Steve Moore, who denies any wrongdoing, and his wife, Shanda Moore, shut down Office Concepts late last year following years of declining sales, personal health issues and rising costs of doing business, particularly a September 2013 fire that raised insurance rates.
On Nov. 26, Meyer Leasing Co. filed a breach of contract suit in Greene County Circuit Court seeking $82,232 plus 7 percent interest dating back to Sept. 15. The filing claims Meyer Leasing issued a promissory note on Jan. 2, 2014, for $92,232 and that Office Concepts made installment payments of $1,250 a month until payments were missed in September and October.
Steve Moore said the Moores and Office Concepts personally guaranteed several high-risk equipment leases that were in default and held by Meyer Leasing.
At the time of closing, Moore painted a bleak financial picture, and tax judgments demonstrate the company’s operating struggles.
Online court records reveal a string of 17 judgments totaling $56,000 secured by the Missouri Department of Revenue for unpaid corporate taxes dating back to August 2013. The judgments range from $1,414 to $4,838. In addition, the Division of Employment Security won three judgments totaling $11,000 against the company during that time.
In November, Moore said he and his wife were going through bankruptcy classes with Springfield attorney David Schroeder, as he explores filing for bankruptcy protection.
The lawsuit extends a recent history of problems claimed by a handful of Office Concepts clients.
Four formal complaints were filed with the Missouri attorney general’s office since 2008, according to a Sunshine Law request by Springfield Business Journal. Two complaints were resolved to the satisfaction of the filers. Another, brought by Springfield-based Kustom Custodians, was a civil matter over $2,300 owed for services rendered. The fourth, made by Ozark Trails Council CEO John Feick after Office Concepts closed, has not been resolved.
Feick alleges the nonprofit is a victim of fraud.
In Feick’s complaint, he said Ozark Trails Council’s previous CEO signed a five-year lease agreement for a single new copier in November 2011. When taking the helm in 2012, Feick learned the lease financed by Mount Laurel, N.J.-based Marlin Leasing Corp. was billing the organization for two copiers.
“We were getting property tax bills for more than one copy machine, and we only had one here. When I talked to my predecessor, he said we only leased one,” Feick said, adding most of the documentation he had on file referenced a single copier.
After paying off the lease on the machine and getting a new one from Office Concepts, Feick got the old copier back since he said it appeared the organization was contractually obligated to lease two pieces of equipment.
“My issue was we’re still on the hook for two copiers,” Feick said.
In addition, the new copier’s serial number did not match what Marlin Leasing had on file. He alleges Office Concepts forged a key leasing document with Marlin.
“Office Concepts combined the model numbers of two copiers into one description of the equipment to be leased,” Feick wrote in the complaint, which he said was filed in case others were dealing with similar problems.
After paying Ozark Trails’ back-taxes, Moore said he thought the issues with Feick were behind him. Now, he’s working to address the attorney general complaints.
David Patrick, lead pastor for Tri-Lakes Christian Church in Branson, said he is dealing with his own leasing nightmare involving Office Concepts and Marlin Leasing.
Four years into a five-year lease, Patrick began shopping for a new copier service agreement. Corporate Business Systems was signed in 2013, but the company was unable to pay off the lease and return Office Concepts’ copier to Marlin Leasing because it had a different serial number than what Marlin had on file.
“We have no idea of knowing if that is the right serial number or not because we don’t have the copier anymore. It was picked up by the new vendor and stored,” Patrick said. “It really has been a nightmare because Marlin Leasing is saying that’s not the copier (we) leased.”
Last week, Steve Moore said he was investigating Patrick’s claims, noting there were no systemic problems, but he would occasionally fill out substitution forms with the leasing companies when new pieces of equipment didn’t match what was on file.
Neither CBS President and CEO Tyson Johns nor Marlin Leasing executive Lynne Wilson responded to requests for comment by press time.
The allegations by clients are a few years removed from the 2010 sentencing of longtime office manager Shanda Moore for her involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme. She agreed to three years of probation, restitution payments of $263,000 and a $3,000 fine. According to SBJ archives, Moore falsified employment at Office Concepts for two individuals seeking home financing. In November, Moore said she was trying to help an employee buy a house by fudging some of the mortgage application details, and she unwittingly was involved in a mortgage scheme. She said the sentencing had nothing to do with the company’s closure.
According to online court records, no hearings were scheduled in the Meyer Leasing case by press time.[[In-content Ad]]
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