Unsecured creditors of Rubio’s Restaurants Inc. said that the bankrupt fish taco chain and key lender Golub Capital LLC took actions to manufacture a cash crunch and loot the company, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. A committee of unsecured creditors filed papers in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., on Tuesday objecting to Rubio’s request for financing designed to carry the Carlsbad, Calif.-based company through the chapter 11 proceedings. In the filing, the committee said that in many so-called prepackaged bankruptcies, junior creditors recoup much of what they are owed. In Rubio’s case, however, they are threatened with little or no recoveries. Rubio’s and Golub developed a strategy that would essentially loot assets that previously weren’t used as collateral, the committee said, leaving nothing for unsecured creditors. Golub Capital, Rubio’s top secured lender, owns a stake in the company in addition to $72 million in debt. Under the company’s restructuring proposal, Golub agreed to provide bankruptcy financing while swapping some secured debt into equity.
