(Montreal) Documents released by a bankruptcy trustee show millions of dollars in unpaid debts beyond what Just for Laughs Festival and its affiliates filed in court last week.
The Montreal-based festival's parent company, Just for Laughs Group Inc., announced earlier this month that it had filed a notice of intent to file a proposal under Canada's bankruptcy and insolvency laws.
Documents released this week by bankruptcy trustee PwC, which it called PricewaterhouseCoopers, show another $5 million in unpaid debts owed by the festival and other related companies.
The payment is in addition to the 22.5 million owed by one of the group's companies, disclosed in documents filed in a Montreal court last week.
Hotels, venues and production companies are among the $3.4 million in newly disclosed $5 million in loans.
In addition, Just for Laughs and another affiliated festival, ZooFest, owe a Montreal convenience store more than $78,000.
Creditors recently named in public documents
- About forty television channels, radio stations and newspapers across Canada are owed more than $100,000;
- Comedian Mike Ward, who owes $301, and singer Ginette Reno, who list more than $2,000;
- Big Yellow Taxi Productions, which produced the Australian Just For Laughs shows filmed in Montreal and Australia, is owed more than $200,000;
- L'Unique convenience store in Montreal, identified for a total of $78,355;
- Comedy Gives Back, a nonprofit organization that helps comedians in need, will pay $8,886;
- Montreal advertising agency Cartier Communication Marketing, the largest creditor named in the new set of documents, owes $720,347.
- Other lenders include Australian comedian Jim Jeffries and Montreal's ambulance service, Argens-Sante.
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