
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 17, 1990                   TAG: 9005170159
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RIB COMPANY CLOSES; OWNER MIGHT REOPEN

RIB Detention has closed its prison equipment company at Troutville in liquidation, but its owner has made arrangements to buy its equipment and it may be in business again.

Roy Creasy, bankruptcy trustee for RIB, said O. D. Oakey IV, RIB owner, and his father, Charles M. Oakey, have made arrangements with Dominion Bank, its largest creditor, to buy the equipment of the closed company.

They are acting as a partnership, Tuna Associates, he said.

"It seems logical that if they buy the equipment they would run the business again," Creasy said after a bankruptcy court meeting of RIB creditors on Wednesday.

If the Oakeys return to the prison equipment market, they will be operating under their third company name.

Dominion and two other creditors filed an involuntary liquidation bankruptcy petition against RIB Detention in March and the company responded with a voluntary move to liquidate.

RIB reported debt of $2.9 million and assets of $981,346 in bankruptcy papers.

Creasy said RIB appears to be providing for its approximately 50 employees who have filed claims for $43,000 in unpaid wages.

About 45 people from RIB Detention have filed for unemployment benefits with the Virginia Employment Commission, said Marjorie Skidmore, job service manager for the VEC in Roanoke.

After payment to the employees and $143,000 in back taxes, Creasy said he doubts if there will be anything left for unsecured creditors. Dominion, the major secured creditor, has RIB's note for more than $511,000.

The two Oakeys own the land and Charles Oakey has a lien on the trucks used by RIB, Creasy said.

by CNB