Seaway Valley delisted to pay off Hacketts' debts

Seaway Valley Capital Corp. - the publicly traded company that owns the troubled Hacketts retail chain, as well as Sacketts Harbor brewery and Alteri's bakery in Watertown - is no longer so publicly traded. CEO Tom Scozzafava delisted Seaway on October 9th and has suspended financial filing requirements with the SEC. Here are the filings. Seaway Valley will still be traded, but on the unregulated "pink sheets" stocks.

Scozzafava told me today the decision was "based on economics". He said his auditing bill for filing quarterly statements and the other disclosure requirements of a registered public traded company amounts to $300,000 a year. He said that's money he needs to pay off Hacketts' vendors, to whom the company is deeply in debt. Some, including Tru Value, have sued the company.

I asked Scozzafava what was going to happen to the 4,000-or-so common stockholders in Seaway Valley. How would they know the financial state of the company without filings? He said he'd "try to release disclosure statements anyway, to the extent that I can get 'em done. You bet." He said downstate CPAs Rosenberg, Rich, Baker, Berman & Company handle his books.

Seaway Valley investors will be displeased. One former investor said in an e-mail:

Basically this is going to put investors "in the dark." Seaway will no longer have to file quarterly and annual reports regarding its financial position. Tom Scozzafava will pull the "it costs too much to maintain" card. But in all reality, he wants to go to the "pinksheets" so that he is no longer 'regulated'.

Scozzafava is the brother of Republican Congressional candidate Dede Scozzafava. She's distanced herself from her brother's activities. But the Scozzafava family name is definitely tied up in the ongoing Hacketts saga.

Tom Scozzafava said he was concerned people will try to tie his sister to this, that she has more to do with Seaway than she's let on, and that's why he's deregistering the company: to hide th details. He denied any of that, saying, "I'm hiding nothing about Dede. I don't tell her what I'm doing with the company. Period."

As for Hacketts' financial condition: "It's stabilized, but we have a long road to hoe with our major vendors."