It appears that customers cutting back their eating-out habits wasn’t the only reason that Decatur diner Crescent Moon filed for bankruptcy last month.
The owners of Crescent Moon
, Global Restaurant Group LLC, have not registered with the Internal Revenue Service and have never paid payroll taxes, according to a motion filed by a creditor on Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia. An IRS agent attended a creditors’ meeting on Aug. 21 and said that Crescent Moon’s owners have never filed a return for paying payroll taxes.
The motion was filed by creditor Alternative Dining Inc., the original owner of Crescent Moon. Alternative Dining asked U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Mary Grace Diehl for an emergency dismissal of the case, or to appoint a trustee to oversee Crescent Moon’s operations and assets.
Crescent Moon’s founder, Rob Atherholt, sold the business to Global Restaurant in October, according to the motion. Global Restaurant has since made some payments to Atherholt as required by the sales agreement but has not met other contractual obligations. Disagreement over those obligations has led to civil litigation in DeKalb State Court.
Additionally, Global Restaurant has not accounted for about $650,000 in cash sales since Atherholt sold the business to the group, the court filing said. Alternative Dining compiled its estimate from data taken from point-of-sale transactions at Crescent Moon’s Decatur and Northlake locations. Alternative Dining said Crescent Moon has made no cash deposits into its checking account at Decatur First Bank since Oct. 31. Alternative Dining estimates that Global Restaurant owes it about $1.04 million.
Global Restaurant had not filed a response to Alternative Dining’s motion as of Tuesday afternoon.
Jones & Walden partner Leon S. Jones in Atlanta is advising Alternative Dining. Atlanta attorney Paul Reece Marr is representing Global Restaurant.