Debt Discrepancy in Barber Bankruptcy Reports

Readers who perused more than one news source regarding the bankruptcy filing of developer Brandon Barber might have been confused by the discrepancy in just how much debt Barber accumulated.

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The Northwest Arkansas Business Journal through ArkansasBusiness.com reported Barber having at total of $47.8 million in debt as did a story by The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas, a figure supported in the bankruptcy paperwork. But the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette had a wildly different figure — $63 million.

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We scratched our heads and briefly wondered if we’d misread the filing. A $15 million swing is nothing to sneeze at, and the story did not itemize all the debt or say where the total figure came from.

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A call to Barber’s attorney K. Vaughn Knight of Fayetteville confirmed we got the number right. “I have no idea where the Democrat [Gazette] got that number,” Knight said.

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Maybe the AD-G knows about something Knight doesn’t?

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