Update on W-2 Situation

As mentioned in the comments, and confirmed, w2express.com has not received W-2 or 1099 information from Axium. There are a few people working at Axium in an effort to correct the W-2s and get them out. It sounds like the 2007 W-2s will be going out within a week.

There is some confusion as to when/if W-2s from the first week of 2008 will be shipped as well. As I find out more I'll post it.

EP Buys Axium

Entertainment Partners bought Axium for over $7 million yesterday. As the details emerge as to what this means for people, I'll post it.

Axium's Website

They finally took it off-line.

Chimes Sold at Auction

According to the LA Times, the Chimes part of Axium's closure was sold to MPS Group Inc. for $8.1 million yesterday. The new company has vowed to maintain continuity of service. I'm trying to get a copy of the terms of the deal for posting. If anybody has it, please let me know (axiumclosed at gmail dot com).

Apologies

Because of work, I haven't been able to post. Several updates will come in the next hour or so. Please accept my apologies.

A Note on W-2s

This comment from another post:

I have just checked the "w2express" website & it shows no record of a W2 for me from Axium for 2007.Yesterday the site said Axium W2s should be available on Jan 21 (today)If you do use their service , it's 30 bucks minimum.

First, as I'm not getting a W-2 from Axium someone else will have to confirm the cost. Also, because they do not guarantee the W-2 until the February 4th reprint it may explain why there is a cost up front. A little help on this one would be helpful.

GoldenTree's Allegations

The allegations laid out against GoldenTree match up with a comment I had previously deleted. The lawsuit should refute any notion that this was a casualty of the WGA strike as alleged by some papers. This from the previous post, with editing to match dates with the complaint:

1) September 4, 2007: Axium pays I.R.S. $31 million to resolve intentional underpayment of taxes for 2004. The I.R.S. uncovered a $31 million dollar discrepancy between the W2/ W2C and the 940/941 for 2004. At this point Axium senior management was notified that Axium would be investigated for the same issues for tax years 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

2) September 2007: Axium's attorneys estimate that Axium will owe the I.R.S. between $70 million and $100 million for years 2003, 2005,2006 and 2007. Golden Tree Asset Management (GTAM), Axium's financial partner, became aware of
the issue.

3) November 2007: GTAM appoints Gina Gutzweit, to operate Axium, relieving John Visconti of any day-to-day decision making power. Gina commences layoffs at Axium Entertainment and ECG.

4) November 2007: GTAM puts Axium Entertainment and ECG up for sale. With the assumption that ECG would sell for $100 million to $120 million and the profit from the sale of real estate would yield another $20 million to $30 million which would cover the $135 million to $140 million that Axium owed
GTAM.

5) Late December 2007: ECG restates EBITDA from $9 million to $4 million. Thus reducing the value of ECG from $100 million to $120 million to $20 million to $25 million. John Visconti hires his own investment bank to represent him in
his ongoing fight with GTAM.

6) January 3, 2008: All final offers to purchase Axium had to be submitted by the end of the business day. GTAM received 3 offers to purchase Axium International (Axium Entertainment + ECG). These offers were made bylarge equity funds. Each offer valued Axium Entertainment at $45 million and ECG at $25 million.

6) January 4, 2008: GTAM has Bank of New York inform Bank of America to prepare to empty the collateral accounts.

7) January 7, 2008: GTAM, after negotiations broke down with the principals, collected $22.5 million dollars from Axium's bank accounts.

The money in Axium's bank account was collateral for the loans which they had received from GTAM. As part of the deal, according to the lawsuit, GTAM's collateral agent (Bank of New York) was granted account access, which is how they could acquired the funds.

There are a lot of other accusations in the filing about gross fraud and abuse of Axium's accounts. However, one thing GTAM seemed to go out of their way to say was that Chris Toto was not aware of what was going on until a secret account opened by one of the principals was uncovered in September 2007.

Toto is not named in the lawsuit. Considering GTAM is suing the ex-wives of the principals, if Toto was involved I'm sure they'd be going after him, too.