Washington Times Faces Involuntary-Bankruptcy Filing -- Richard A. Steinbronn

Steven Church and Dawn McCarty
October 21, 2010

Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Washington Times LLC faces involuntary bankruptcy because of a court filing by a lawyer who said he was fired as an officer of an affiliate of the newspaper publisher.

Richard A. Steinbronn said today in papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Washington that the company owes Washington Times Aviation LLC and a related entity $2 million.

An involuntary-bankruptcy petition can be used by creditors to force a company into bankruptcy to collect debts. The company has 21 days from the time it is notified of the petition to answer the creditor claims. It can either accept the bankruptcy case or try to have it thrown out.

Steinbronn was authorized to file on behalf of two Times Aviation companies because he is a former director of their parent, Times Aerospace International LLC, he said in court papers.

"He was wrongfully terminated from various positions in early 2009," according to the filing.

The petition includes promissory notes purporting to show intercompany loans among affiliates of the Washington Times.

The Washington Times' average daily circulation fell 17 percent to 67,148 in the six months through September 2009, the most recent data available from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. That compares with declines of 6.4 percent at the Washington Post in the period, and 11 percent industrywide.

A spokesman for News World Communications Inc., the owner of the Washington Times, couldn't be reached for comment.

The Washington Times was founded by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, leader of the Unification Church. A spokesman for the church declined to comment.

The case is In Re Washington Times LLC 10-01041, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Columbia.