Joseph Bonney, Senior Editor | Mar 29, 2012 11:08AM EDT
FastShip, which hoped a decade ago to launch a speedy trans-Atlantic service using innovative technology, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in hope of raising funds for a patent-infringement lawsuit against the Navy.
“It is a creative way use of Chapter 11 to preserve our creditors and fund the litigation,” FastShip CEO Roland K. Bullard II told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Philadelphia-based FastShip raised money from investors who backed the startup company’s plan to build four 40-knot-plus container ships that would be twice as fast as conventional ships plying the Atlantic.
FastShip’s plans attracted considerable skepticism, and the project never got off the ground.
The company’s Chapter 11 filing in Wilmington, Del., listed $9 million in debts to unsecured creditors, including $4.5 million to law firm Blank Rome and a predecessor firm, Dyer, Ellis & Joseph in Washington.
In addition, the filing listed $30 million in debts to lenders secured by the company’s “intellectual property.” That total included $3.5 million owed the Delaware River Port Authority, which also invested $7 million in FastShip’s preferred equity.
An unspecified amount of debt was owed to more than 100 common shareholders in the U.S., Europe and Britain.
Contact Joseph Bonney at jbonney@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JosephBonney.