System Builder B3's CEO Files For Bankruptcy

The defunct system builder closed its doors in July after having borrowed about $650,000 funds from the Marquette County Economic Development Corp. and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. The agencies lent the money to B3 beginning in 2004 to help it relocate to a shuttered air force base and bring high-tech jobs to the county.

After B3 closed it doors, a county official said county commissioners referred the matter to the county district attorney and the state attorney general's office for further investigation.

In a story posted on station WLUC-TV's Web site on Friday, the station said Carr in the bankruptcy filing reported that $248,000 in personal assets he had when he came to Michigan were gone. The report also said Carr admitted that when he applied for the loans in Michigan, he failed to disclosed a tax lien against him in California.

B3 built custom systems for solution providers, including ASCII Group members. Before opening operations in Michigan, B3 also had been supplying systems to ASCII Group under a special pricing agreement while operating as B3PC, based in San Diego.

"The whole time they were in San Diego, they were fabulous actually," said David House, owner of Creative Computer Solutions, Troy, Mich., a former customer.

House at first was pleased when B3 moved to Gwinn, Mich., thinking it would shorten shipping time. But he dropped B3 more than a year ago as a supplier after the turnaround time and the quality began to go downhill.

"You could tell they were going to cheaper components," he said.