IBD President Gary Spaniak refused to comment on the matter to XBIZ late Thursday; however, the company, in the SEC filing, said it believes that the lender breached its deal.
“[IBD] disputes that a default has occurred, as it believes that the alleged breaches of the credit agreement, if any, do not give rise to the acceleration of the amounts owed under the amended note,” IBD said in the filing.
If the outstanding amounts are not immediately paid in full, the filing said, the lender intends to dispose of all collateral owned by IBD, including accounts receivable, processor reserves, inventory, equipment, property and other collateral of iBill and its XTV Investments fund.
The lender, IIG Trade Opportunities Fund, a unit of IIG Capital LLC of New York, did not return phone calls to XBIZ.
IIG claims that IBD violated "certain provisions" of an amended note and did not deliver pledged securities. IIG, which entered into a lending agreement with IBD as early as December 2004, boosted the IBD loan's interest rate past 12 percent per annum in December.
IIG further said the default occurred after other holders of promissory notes valued at $8 million claimed default against IBD in December, breaking the terms of the contract.
This week’s news on IBD continues the downward spiral for the Deerfield Beach, Fla., company, which owns third-party credit card processor iBill, has a 35 percent stake in Penthouse and has an approximate 18 percent share in ITVN, which markets XTV, an IPTV network.
Last month, IBD reported in a filing to the SEC that it needs to restate its financial statements for the last four quarters.
With that filing, the company also said a recent audit by a third-party accounting firm found that previous accounting numbers could sink the value of its investments in Penthouse and ITVN.
“It appears at this time that … historical results of operations, financial position, balance sheet and certain disclosures may be impacted by the issues raised [in the quarterly filings to the SEC],” IBD said in another SEC filing.
In August, Spaniak signaled a continued deficit after the company delayed that quarterly SEC filing.
“We’re still running at a loss, but we’ve elected to go forward,” Spaniak told XBIZ at the time. “We could have claimed bankruptcy, but we didn’t.”
Through the past few years iBill has been connected to a number of scandals and numerous webmaster complaints over nonpayments.
But Spaniak has asserted over time to XBIZ that webmasters are getting paid. As late as last month, Spaniak said that iBill has paid companies at least $22 million in funds owed.
IBill last year negotiated deals with some companies after the third-party processor had problems paying clients when credit card processor First Data withheld funds and dropped its account.
In another twist in its sordid history, IBD in March denied allegations that iBill leaked credit card information that may have eventually made its way onto the Internet and into the hands of fraud artists and spammers. Wired News reported that 17 million customers of the third-party processor have had their personal information released over the Internet.
Two months ago, iBill agreed to outsource its online payment processing to Etelegate.com, an unrelated third-party processor that converts credit cards, checks, Web 900 and dialer transactions.
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