Sentinel made $11.3 million in payments to it's founder and his wife before going belly up in Chapter 11

Preference payments?  Fraudulent convenyance?  Whatever the payments were, they sure sounds shady: Crains Chicago Business reports that Sentinel Management Group wired $11.3 million to its founder Philip Bloom and his wife Sybil not even a month before the company went into Chapter 11.   These payments of course will be attacked in the bankruptcy:

The transfers, made July 18, were listed at the end of a 249-page statement of financial affairs that Sentinel filed at bankruptcy court late Friday.

Sentinel sought bankruptcy protection on Aug. 17, after freezing customer accounts that had been guaranteed to be fully liquid.

The amounts wired, about $5.6 million each, were by far the largest recorded amounts wired to the two revocable trusts.

Creditors want to know why Sentinel was cutting insiders such large checks so soon before the company’s collapse.

“These are payments that we will seriously look at,” says Arthur Hahn, a lawyer for several Sentinel creditors, including its biggest, Discus Master Ltd. 

Sentinel wired $11.3 mil. to founder, wife before Chap. 11 - Crains Chicago Business