Opinion ID: 4533869
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Bankruptcy Fraud

Text: Between 2009 and 2017, Jackson filed seven separate bankruptcy petitions under Chapter 11 or Chapter 13. Jackson made each of these filings in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and at least five of these filings were transmitted electronically to a bankruptcy court server in Virginia. Filing a petition under either of these provisions triggers an automatic 30-day stay of any legal proceedings, including “any act to obtain possession of property of the estate or of property from the estate or to exercise control over property of the estate.” 11 U.S.C § 362(a)(3). Jackson filed the first of these on January 7, 2009, one day before his residence in Hershey, Pennsylvania was scheduled to be sold at a Dauphin County, Pennsylvania Sheriff’s sale. The property was encumbered by two mortgages, and Jackson had not made a payment since January 2008. The aim, and result, of these petitions was to delay the sale of this residence. In each of these bankruptcy petitions, Jackson inflated his financial resources and made false representations regarding his employment. After rejecting Jackson’s fifth bankruptcy petition, the Bankruptcy Court barred him from filing any new bankruptcy 3 petitions for two years. Less than a week later, in violation of this order, Jackson filed another Chapter 13 petition, this one in his wife’s name. He did so without counsel and without his wife’s knowledge or consent. This filing, like those before it, resulted in a delay of the Sheriff’s sale of Jackson’s property. On the morning of the newly scheduled date for the sale, Jackson filed yet another bankruptcy petition under his wife’s name, again unbeknownst to her. This filing also successfully postponed the Sheriff’s sale of Jackson’s residence. Among the assets that Jackson listed in his bankruptcy petitions were income from a paper company named Intex Building Group, Inc. (“Intex”). Jackson claimed to have earned $192,000 in annual income from Intex, but his bank records showed no deposits from Intex, and he admitted in an October 20, 2016 interview with the FBI and IRS that he had never received any income from Intex.