Petsingers’ claim indicates up to $1M debt

After abruptly closing his communications business on June 1, Radio Link Internet owner Daniel Petsinger directed “all inquiries, outstanding claims or demands” to the federal bankruptcy court in Minnesota.

That’s where he and his wife Carrie Petsinger filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, also on June 1.

But in the document, the couple claimed their debts are primarily consumer debts, defined as “incurred by an individual primarily for a personal, family, or household purpose.”

The form indicates their debt was not incurred “for a business or investment or through the operation of the business or investment.”

Petsingers estimate they have between 50 and 99 creditors, to whom they owe between a half-million and a million dollars.

They estimated their assets at between $100,000-500,000.

Because of that, they indicated that after exempt property is excluded and administrative expenses are paid, there will be no funds available to distribute to unsecured creditors.

That may deal a blow to some of his reported 400 customers: RLI required prepayment for annual service contracts. Some said they had just paid Radio Link for the upcoming year as recently as March or April, leaving them seeking a refund for the 10 months prepaid.

Though the sudden shutdown left people like Lonna Westphal-Klug scrambling, she feels fortunate.

When she took over Papa Olie’s Bar and Grill in Waldorf in January 2023, the internet service came with the business, “and they’d been pretty good. I really hadn’t had any issues,” she said.

But she had gotten rid of her landline, so her jukebox, ATM and TVs all operated on internet service. It also included the electronic pull-tabs for charitable gaming – and her credit card machine.

She was home June 1 when an employee called and said the credit card machine wasn’t working, “then she said the ATM and e-tabs weren’t working,” Westphal-Klug said. “So I went online before I started making any calls – and realized that there was just no way to get a hold of anybody, that everything had been pretty much disconnected.”

Her staff had to leave the cash drawer open – the register, too, was internet-configured, “and we just kept track of everything on a tally so that we were able to adjust that difference with the cash when the system was up and running again,” Westphal-Klug said.

“I pretty much was down to just a cash basis for that day,” she said. “I went to Verizon right away the next day, and said, ‘I need something, like, stat.’”

Her business is growing; 10 teams play volleyball there every week, there’s bean bag competition on Tuesdays “and we grill on Thursdays,” she said.

Verizon was “able to hook me up with a business account until BevComm comes through here in town later this summer,” something that was already in the plan when Radio Link went dark.

She’s referring to the Blue Earth-based provider that is bringing high-speed fiber broadband to rural Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.

“That was the plan; we were all signed up and ready to go, but they’re still out two, three months,” Westphal-Klug said. On June 1, “it was like, ‘OK, what am I going to do?’”

By that point, she said, “word was out that they had basically gone belly-up and we were SOL.”

Still, compared to other RLI customers, “I was very fortunate that I (quickly) qualified for a business account to get me by,” a service that comes with a backup battery.

“If I would lose power, I will still have all my internet connections, which was a big thing,” Westphal-Klug said. “I know that now.”

Varied creditors

Though Radio Link Internet was rarely named, it was at the heart of several lawsuits filed by – and against – Petsinger. Included as defendants were the city of Ellendale; members of the Ellendale City Council and several officials in Steele County.

In addition to losing the lawsuits and subsequent appeals, Petsinger was ordered to pay legal fees for many of the defendants.

He owed more than $32,000 to Ellendale and nearly $29,000 to cover the county’s attorney fees.

They are on the list filed in bankruptcy court, as are Jaguar Communications and the attorneys who represented the company against Petsinger in court; Waseca County, and the cities of Geneva, New Richland and Waldorf.

Also named are the IRS; Hilton Grand Vacations; Furniture Mart USA; Capital One; Allina Health; American Express; Mayo Clinic; the Minnesota Department of Revenue Collection Division; PayPal; a woman who died in 2020; several financial institutions and several individuals across southern Minnesota.