ClassicStar bankruptcy change sought

The U.S. Trustee's office has filed a motion in a Kentucky federal court requesting that the bankruptcy status of a former commercial breeding partnership, ClassicStar, be changed from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7.

The move, if granted, would convert ClassicStar's bankruptcy protection from business reorganization to liquidation. The motion was filed late last month and has since been supported by the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, appointed by the U.S. Trustee's office.

A hearing on the motion was to take place Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of Kentucky, in Lexington.

ClassicStar filed for bankruptcy protection last September in the wake of numerous lawsuits by former clients alleging that the company defrauded them of as much as $500 million through complex mare-lease programs the company marketed as money-making tax shelters.

Former ClassicStar executives Tony Ferguson, now a partner in Woodford Thoroughbreds with John Sykes, and David and Spencer Plummer have denied the charges.