Another Winick success story. June 3, 2006
Defunct company has more trouble
By Jason Probst
The Hutchinson News
jprobst@hutchnews.com
Less than two years ago, HEE Corp. officials Ron Brooks and Sandy Winick stood in front of the former Halstead Hospital and announced the company's plan to buy the empty building.
The Hutchinson-based company sported a helicopter at the time and a Gulfstream II jet, leased from a Florida firm.
HEE's plans to buy the Halstead building fell through, though, and the jet was taken in an $805,750 civil judgment against HEE Corp. and its chairman, Brooks.
Now the defunct Hutchinson company faces additional troubles. The Kansas Department of Revenue has served tax warrants against several Reno County residents with connections to HEE in an attempt to collect nearly $27,000 in unpaid withholding taxes.
According to the warrant, filed May 19 in Reno County, HEE Corp., 6209 North K-61, owes $26,599.28 for taxes that went unpaid between Oct. 1, 2004, and Nov. 30, 2005.
The warrant calls for the Reno County sheriff to levy and sell homes owned by Darci and Radley Brooks, 3715 Spyglass Road, Ron Brooks, 7 Lake Terrace Drive, and Frank Stuckey, 3406 Dartmouth Road.
The warrant says proceeds from the sale of those homes will be used as payment, interest and penalties for the overdue taxes.
A return from the sheriff's office shows a deputy tacked the warrant to Darci and Radley Brooks' home, as well as Ron Brooks' residence. The warrant returns show that HEE is no longer in business.
Efforts to reach the Brooks family were unsuccessful.
"The state, when they do that, they just do everybody," Stuckey said Thursday about the tax warrants. "It was my understanding that Mr. Brooks transferred money to them on Monday to take care of that, but I don't have anything from the state saying that."
Charity King, with the Kansas Department of Revenue, said Friday the state hadn't received a satisfaction of judgment notice regarding payment of HEE's overdue taxes.
Stuckey served as chairman of HEE for about four months in 2005 but said he wasn't responsible for any of the money handling or day-to-day operations of the firm.
"I came back on July 1 of last year and Ron was looking for some assistance," Stuckey said. "I still had a couple of months on my non-compete clause and it was more of a ceremonial thing."
Stuckey said the company no longer is in operation, but he's still a believer in the product the company sold - a natural remedy for type 2 diabetes.
A Feb. 15, 2005, HEE Corp. disclosure statement lists Radley Brooks - Ron Brooks' son - as president of HEE and Darci Brooks as secretary. Stuckey announced his resignation as chairman of the board Nov. 15, 2005, but the move wasn't finalized until March 2006.
In March, Assistant Reno County District Attorney Ben Fisher confirmed that he assisted in an investigation of HEE Corp. conducted by the Kansas Securities Commission.
That state agency, however, continues to decline comment on any pending investigation.
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