That time Mike Lindell declared a 'fake bankruptcy' to avoid a lawsuit

The $1.3 billion lawsuit filed by the voting machine company Dominion against Minnesota pillow mogul Mike Lindell Monday is not the first time he’s faced a potentially ruinous lawsuit.

By late 2003, after more than a decade owning his beloved Victoria bar called Schmitty’s Tavern, Lindell had $147,000 in debts, according to court records, and couldn’t keep up with the bar mortgage payments. Lindell sold the bar that year for $500,000, with part of the purchase financed through two promissory notes requiring the buyer to make monthly payments.

But then Lindell learned his corporation was being named as a co-defendant in a dram shop lawsuit — that’s when a bar owner is sued if a customer is over-served and then causes injury, in this case a snowmobile crash.

Lindell writes in his book “What are the Odds?” that he decided to avoid the potential damages by declaring bankruptcy — a “fake bankruptcy,” he calls it in the book. By doing so, he could protect his assets from the people suing him and embark on his next plan: Becoming a professional gambler.

Read more: https://minnesotareformer.com/2021/02/23/that-time-mike-lindell-declared-a-fake-bankruptcy-to-avoid-a-lawsuit/