Creditors attempt to force Aleph Objects’ successor company into liquidation

LOVELAND — A group of debtholders is attempting to force the successor company to the now-defunct 3D printing company Aleph Objects Inc. into an involuntary liquidation.

Larimer Skyview Inc., the successor to the formerly Loveland-based Aleph, was issued an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition in federal court by four companies claiming a total of $1.13 million in existing trade debt.

The largest of those debtors is CCX Corp., a Lafayette-based maker of cables and data-center equipment. It claims $461,260 in unpaid invoices.

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In most cases, a company files a Chapter 7 petition to liquidate itself and distribute the proceeds to its debtors. However, debtors can ask a bankruptcy court to liquidate a company that won’t do so by itself if the company meets certain benchmarks and generally isn’t paying debts that are not part of an ongoing legal dispute.

Concurrently, Larimer Skyview is the subject of a federal lawsuit in Massachusetts from software developer Integrated Computer Solutions Inc., which is trying to collect a $389,981 payment from an earlier arbitration case.

Aleph was once one of the fastest-growing companies in Northern Colorado, employing more than 100 people and producing the LulzBot 3D printing brand.

But in short order, the company laid off 90% of its staff and sold itself to a North Dakota manufacturer last fall.

A former employee filed suit against Larimer Skyview, claiming that the company violated a federal law requiring a warning period before a mass layoff. Aleph’s founder Jeff Moe said in filings within that lawsuit that the company was exempt from filing a layoff notice because it was in the middle of a fundraising effort.

That case is currently delayed in the pre-trial stage as the ongoing pandemic has made the discovery process more difficult.

Moe did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

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