The government of the Netherlands Antilles has weighed in and approved yet another proposed sale of the former telecommunications assets of Jeffrey Prosser to the non-profit bank that lent Prosser and his corporations more than a half-billion dollars.
Prosser is the former owner and CEO of Innovative Telephone, aka Vitelco. He and his former corporations are now in bankruptcy proceedings in the U.S. courts.
The bank, the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC) of Herndon, Va., is seeking approval from about a half-dozen governmental entities for its proposed credit acquisition of Vitelco and related holdings. A credit purchase happens when the creditor uses all or part of the moneys owed to buy the assets of the debtor, in this case, Prosser’s one-time phone company and its Caribbean subsidiaries.
CFC has secured the needed approval of both the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission; it now also has the blessings of both the British Virgin Islands and the Netherlands Antilles governments for the transfer of the former Prosser cable companies in those jurisdictions.
Earlier, the U.S. Bankruptcy Judge presiding over these matters, Judith Fitzgerald, gave her tentative approval of the purchase of all of these properties, pending the OK of the various other interested governmental parties.
What is needed to complete the deal are two more approvals: that of the V.I. Public Service Commission (PSC) and a final approval from the judge. The PSC has held hearings on the sale of Vitelco, the cable companies that serve the territory, and lesser holdings, but has not yet delivered a verdict.
Meanwhile, a staff review of the other multitudinous Prosser-related bankruptcy proceedings in various federal courts revealed that the lawyers involved have been in hibernation during the holidays, but will, if history is any guide, be active again shortly.