The number of employees has been steadily dwindling for some time.
The number of employees has been steadily dwindling for some time.
That Oklahoman article....it's such a shame, but not surprising, that in the end it's all spin control for TEEMCO. It's just the oil prices after all.
I think deep down, there may be some attempt at trying to "prove" you're wrong. I don't know, it just strikes me that way.
From that Oklahoman article:
TEEMCO was evicted today from the warehouse property on N. Santa Fe, which they have been renting for several years and is the storage facility for all the materials they need to conduct their business.“When times are tough financially, it’s not usual for us to be behind on some bills, but we plan to pay them,” Lorson said.
And as previously mentioned, most their financial problems started well before the oil price drop and they owe many creditors debts which they haven't paid on for 9 months or more.
TEEMCO was evicted on Friday from the water bottling operation in El Reno. They still owe tons of back rent and will owe the remainder of their lease amount as long as the property sits vacant.
That's three evictions in the last few weeks.
There was just a large ($200K+) judgement made against TEEMCO related to a recent eviction from a local warehouse.
The landlord had already won default judgment (meaning TEEMCO didn't contest or even appear at the hearing) for eviction and past due rent, plus late fees and other costs.
But they had also filed a separate suit for the value of the remainder of the 5-year lease term, and once again won a default judgment.
And in this case, CEO Greg Lorson had recently signed a personal guarantee on the lease, no doubt due to the fact the company had been behind several times. They had staved off eviction at the last minute at least once before.
They don't even seem to be putting up a fight now.
Also, they told the Oklahoman they were moving into the Gold Dome in February, and that month has come and gone.
The latest excuse was a boiler, and I've yet to see a permit for a new one.
On Monday May 18th, representatives of the Oklahoma Tax Commission served Edmond-based TEEMCO with a cease and desist order in their offices, requiring the company to immediately close its doors and stop operating.
TEEMCO employees were asked to leave the premises and the offices are still closed at the time of this writing, 11:00AM on Thursday May 21st.
Millions in unpaid taxes
At issue is years of unpaid taxes.
As OKCTalk had previously reported as part of our investigative series, TEEMCO has allegedly never paid any of the federal withholding taxes that had been collected from the paychecks of employees. Subsequently, we also learned the same was true for the state withholding taxes and social security, as well as state sales tax.
See our previous reports in this series:
TEEMCO has been operating for five years and has amassed millions in back taxes, not including the inevitable and substantial penalties and interest.
At the same time, the company seems to have almost no assets.
Unpaid employees, lapsed medical coverage, substantial judgments and evictions
Current employees report being owed several weeks of back pay and that the TEEMCO internet service was recently disconnected. Currently, the TEEMCO company website is off-line.
Former employees tell OKCTalk that although deductions were made to their paycheck for health insurance, TEEMCO stopped paying the insurance invoices sometime around the first of the year resulting in a loss of coverage and unpaid medical bills.
TEEMCO has recently been hit with several lawsuits and judgments for unpaid debts. In most recent cases, the company or CEO Greg Lorson did not even respond to the filings or show for hearings; default judgment were merely rendered by the court.
Recently, TEEMCO faced eviction from a warehouse for the second time in just a few months. Employees tell us the company merely moved its inventory after one eviction, only to be sued for nonpayment at the new location.
Facing the second forced expulsion in early April, the company sold the majority of the warehouse contents, including the world's largest salt crystal lamp it had once promised as a feature of a flashy new headquarters.
Just a few weeks ago, the company announced it had scrapped its plans to move into the historic Gold Dome where the salt crystal lamp was to have been displayed.
Alleged embezzlement of charitable donations
OKCTalk has learned Lorson accepted at least $35,000 in donations for a kidney transplant patient.
In various press releases and local media stories, Lorson spoke at great length about the TEEMCO Foundation, a nonprofit that was to help this particular kidney patient and other noble community causes.
In fact, in 2014 the Journal Record gave Lorson and TEEMCO a Golden Beacon award for its charitable work and published this in their story: "The TEEMCO Foundation is raising funds to pay for a kidney transplant needed by an individual with terminal kidney failure. 'Except for the TEEMCO Foundation, this person has no financial resources, nor family, organizational or community support,' Lorson said."
But there is no evidence the TEEMCO Foundation has never existed.
Former employees tell us that it was never created, and research through the Oklahoma Secretary of State has found no record of any TEEMCO Foundation or any other nonprofit formed by Lorson or anyone else at the company.
Employees also report that Lorson told them that the young woman no longer needed a transplant and thus no money would be issued to her.
We were able to confirm that one donation of $30,000 and another for $5,000 were never returned to the donors, nor were they notified of Lorson's intention not to forward the money to the intended recipient. Both the large donations were deposited in TEEMCO accounts in 2013.
Extravagant spending
Meanwhile, Lorson drove a new Jaguar, bought a stretch limousine and a large yacht on Lake Texoma and took lavish trips to Europe and Hawaii.
The company also inked huge endorsement contracts with the Thunder of the NBA and the University of Oklahoma, then completely defaulted on those agreements at the very early stages, while Lorson continued to enjoy premium tickets to sporting events.
Lorson himself was on the field in Norman on December 6, 2014 to present the TEEMCO Bedlam trophy to the winner of the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State football game.
Ironically, at that very moment Lorson was in the process of being evicted from his own residence.
OKCTalk's investigation of TEEMCO is on-going.
bumping this up as I just posted the article.
Great work once again, Pete!
I've passed by the gold dome twice in the past couple of days and noticed a homeless person with a shopping cart living up against the front door. Let's hope something good will happen to it now.
Hell of a job on this Pete. You uncovered this thing while local media sat around on their butts.
Edit: But to be fair to the Oklahoman, pictures of local celebrities don't just post themselves to the age-guessing website. I'm sure that took a lot of time.
I guess TEEMCO is now unofficially no more. I don't see them paying their taxes and reopening.
Lorson needs to go to jail - what a fake.
fascinating
It's going to get a lot more fascinating in the very near future.
Lots more to come out on all of this.
Great job on this series, Pete. Just to echo hoyasooner, it's hard to believe that local media did little to nothing on this story. And when they did, it was almost excuse making on behalf of TEEMCO. Just an amazing story of corruption and media complicity.
Fantastic reporting, Pete! Bravo!
How could the paper of record miss such an important story?
Fantastic reporting, Pete! Still amazed that the local media has pretty much ignored this story.
OKC energy firm's misunderstanding with state Tax Commission leads to brief closure | News OK
Newsok is reporting that TEEMCO closed because of a paperwork mixup with the OTC. I don't know why time after time Newsok seem to defend them.
BTW, Newsok really is a fraud. I got scammed by them not too long ago by a door to door "student" who had me sign up for 6 weeks paying in cash & before I knew it I was being charged for 6 months and threatened with a tax collector.
Not a bad project. The digital side has gone downhill while the print edition is - well - is there one? Just kidding. They truly were one of the pioneers in digital journalism (believe it or not) but it has tuned into a busy, ad packed (with no class), and a site that is filled with silly clickbait headlines. (Speaking of, have you seen the CNN site lately? Talk about downhill.)
So why have they been closed since Tuesday? I guess it doesn't really matter since Teemco employees are probably not doing much these days anyway."The whole thing was literally cleared up in 30 minutes,” Lorson said.
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