Windowizards founder declares personal bankruptcy in Florida

In a move whose effect on consumers was unclear, the founder of the troubled Windowizards home-improvement company declared personal bankruptcy in Florida. But claims continued to be settled with Philadelphia-area customers with unfinished orders.

Consumer-protection officials in Bucks County, who have been consulting weekly with Windowizards founder Harvey Goodman since the Levittown business stopped completing orders around Christmas, said they learned of his Chapter 7 filing while probing the broader issues of what might have brought the window-replacement company to the brink.

A criminal investigation also is under way, and a meeting set for Thursday between prosecutors and Mike Bannon of the Bucks County Consumer Protection Agency to discuss what, if any, effect the bankruptcy might have, Bannon said Monday.

In a Chapter 7 petition filed in the Southern District of Florida on Feb. 18, Goodman, who has a home in Delray Beach, listed $1.1 million in assets and $5.8 million in liabilities, including about $4.8 million worth of unsecured claims, according to bankruptcy documents.

Some of Goodman's largest unsecured creditors are owed money by Windowizards, the filings show: American Express Co., with a claim of about $375,000, and CBS Radio in Philadelphia, owed more than $159,000.

Goodman did not return a phone message Monday. Recently, the business had been run, in part, by his relatives.

Windowizards abruptly shut in late December, reopened for several weeks, and shut again in February. The turmoil left nearly 200 people with an estimated half-million dollars' worth of claims, Bannon said.

Despite the bankruptcy filing, Goodman continued sending installation crews out as recently as Monday to customers' homes and returning deposits to others, Bannon said.

"We continue to go down the trail with our investigation," he said. "We're looking at the possibility of criminal action involved in their business practices."