Even the conservative assessment by a court-appointed receiver proved to be overly optimistic regarding the insolvent business interests of John Rogers, whose Facebook page recently offered up what read almost like a confession.
The income-producing ability of the photo archives and sports memorabilia flotsam of the alleged serial fraudster is so anemic that Michael McAfee is seeking to rework the terms of his engagement.
During 2015, the varied Rogers ventures produced less than $310,000 of revenue and finished more than $66,000 in the red.
How could this raggedy operation be the same thriving enterprise that Rogers once touted to the media and others?
♦ In July 2011, Rogers told the New York Post that his business pulled in about $9 million in revenue during 2010.
♦ Two months later, he told Editor & Publisher he would generate $11 million in revenue from photo sales during 2011.
♦ In October 2012, he told the Arkansas Times that he was bringing in $120,000 a week from eBay alone.
But behind the scenes, Rogers was rebuffing requests from bankers to produce audited financial statements and hire a chief financial officer. Lawsuits would eventually show that he was augmenting corporate cash flow with phantom deals that lured investors and lenders to give him millions of dollars.
A forensic audit later revealed a mismanagement mess after he was pushed out of the company by creditors two years ago. The fiscal norm at Sports Cards Plus was expenses exceeding revenue, an imbalance kept from tipping by investors and debt until 2014.
Rogers awaits the criminal reckoning expected from a federal investigation based out of Chicago. That probe launched the raid on his North Little Rock business and home on Jan. 28, 2014.
Blake Hendrix, criminal defense lawyer for Rogers, said he has no updates on his client’s legal situation.
“It’s just at a standstill,” Hendrix said. “There’s nothing new to report. They’re doing what they’re doing or what they’re not doing.”
But an April 7 entry on Rogers’ Facebook page suggested that he is preparing to take a plea.
“I regretfully made some really poor decisions to save my company when the economy went south. For those poor decisions, I will be separated from you all. I will be admitting guilt soon and given a sentence of incarceration. It is nobody’s fault but my own. But I felt compelled to make this post because I know I will be separated from you all for a long period of time.”
Contacted by Arkansas Business, Rogers would neither confirm nor deny he was the author. Rogers was in full domineering conversation mode, interested only in talking about a lawsuit against him that fell by the wayside in March. The 2015 case against Rogers individually was dismissed for lack of activity.
John Conner Jr. of Newport and his Holden-Conner Farms Inc. and Newport Archives Inc. last year obtained a consent judgment against Sports Cards Plus for nearly $9.6 million in the case.
The complaint, including allegations of fraud, was tied to a series of delinquent loans that Rogers personally guaranteed.
Why did Conner let the case go dormant? Spending more time and money in hopes of getting money from a threadbare Rogers was deemed fruitless.
As detailed in lawsuits against him, others believe his mismanagement is what killed the company without assistance from the economy. Poor decisions also allowed him and his family to live large while the business cratered.
The fun included fabulous trips, with a 2012 sojourn in Bora Bora among the most memorable; an awesome condo overlooking New York’s Central Park, leased for more than $10,000 a month; and a grand 12,449-SF manor, built for more than $2 million in 2010.
His trips abroad are history since his passport was surrendered to the court last year. His travel is restricted to in-state only, monitored by a court-ordered ankle bracelet. The Manhattan high-rise pad is no more. The Park Hill mansion has gone the way of foreclosure.
New Address
These days, Rogers is relying on the financial goodwill of friends and family. He’s living in rented quarters in Little Rock’s Hillcrest neighborhood. It’s a different address than the bogus one Rogers gave North Little Rock police when he was pulled over and arrested in December on charges of burglary and theft of property.
That case is in limbo, much to the chagrin of McAfee.
He filed the complaint after security cameras captured Rogers making a midnight visit to his former office back in August and allegedly taking three 5-terabyte hard drives.
North Little Rock police recovered two of the three hard drives from Rogers during his arrest. The hard drives he allegedly stole from the Sports Cards Plus office at 115 E. 24th St. contained more than a million scanned photographs with metadata valued at $364,167.
“I think the prosecutor has made this a low priority,” McAfee said. “I don’t understand the criminal justice system. The federal side is no better.”
The FBI investigation for bank fraud and counterfeit sports memorabilia is tied to $50 million in creditor-investor claims in a string of civil cases against Rogers.
His latest misadventure with law enforcement and the courts occurred on March 29 but is lightweight in comparison.
Rogers was ticketed by Little Rock police for driving the wrong way down a one-way street. The midafternoon traffic stop at Third and Brown also resulted in a ticket for driving with a suspended driver’s license.
Counting the Cost
McAfee’s outlook for bringing value to the remaining assets of Rogers on behalf of creditors began to turn murky in the fourth quarter of 2015.
“Due diligence to assess the physical inventory is proving more difficult than initially thought,” McAfee said in his report to the court. “This process is still continuing, and it is hoped that proposals for the purchase of selected archives should be forthcoming. The prospect of one buyer purchasing all the assets of the receivership does not look probable at this time.”
The court-appointed receiver has entertained 11 prospective buyers since he entered the picture in January 2015. Creditors hoped someone would step up to the plate with a big, bona fide offer, but that didn’t happen.
Plans are shifting to sell whatever pieces of the business can be sold with his work winding down by year’s end.
“I don’t see it continuing beyond 2016, maybe into the first quarter of 2017, unless there’s a radical change,” McAfee said. “My crystal ball in this whole thing has been incredibly cloudy.
“There was so much perceived value because of all the appraisals [commissioned by Rogers]. The creditors have put a significant amount of money in the business. The perception was that it was worth X, but it’s going to be worth X minus a significant number.”
With the support of Rogers’ lead creditor, First Arkansas Bank & Trust of Jacksonville, McAfee is asking for court approval of a new payment formula for his services.
He is asking for a monthly fee of $8,500 that will be deducted from his 5 percent commission on any sales.
McAfee collected only $14,375 for his share of sales during 2015. Weighed against 817 hours of work, that translates to about $17.60 per hour.
Rogers in Receivership*
| 2015 1Q | 2015 2Q | 2015 3Q | 2015 4Q | 2016 1Q | |
| Revenue | $157,099 | $54,821 | $74,623 | $23,152 | $14,046 |
| Expenses | $152,686 | $109,368 | $77,910 | $74,465 | $60,202 |
| Other Income | $22,745 | $15,246 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Net Income | $27,157 | -39,300 | -$3,286 | -$51,312 | -$46,156 |
*Represents the operations and assets of Sports Cards Plus Inc., Planet Giant LLC, Digital Stock Planet LLC and Photo Archive Partners along with the sports and celebrity memorabilia and collectibles of John Rogers and his ex-wife, Angelica Rogers, overseen by the court-appointed receiver, Michael McAfee.
Source: Pulaski County Circuit Court