MVP RV pulls plug in investor dispute

California RV manufacturer MVP RV has pulled the plug and is on the selling block even as it had great plans to export billions of dollars worth of RVs to China. This is not the first time the Riverside, California firm has been in the news with less-than-stellar performance problems.

The firm first came into the light back in 2008 after three former managers from Thor California bosses started up MVP. Perhaps they missed the signs of the swirling down the drain economy, and by 2009 the company shut down the production lines. Trying to stay afloat the company owners took a shine to the idea of building electric cars for an outfit in South Korea. The plan never took off.

Enter a savior in the form of one Winston Chung, a businessman/inventor from China. Chung invented a lithium-sulfur battery and plans on building a production plant in California to manufacture and export them--again to China. Chung took over as MVP's board chairman and said he would pump $310 into the company's coffers in addition to an investment he'd already made with the company. His vision: 30,000 RVs made in the USA and ferried to China. Included among them would be electric battery powered units.

But the Asian-American fusion didn't work out well. Last summer a lawsuit was filed claiming that Chung elbowed out other investors, and allegedly phonied up a document that showed that Chung was the sole owner of the stake that other Chinese investors claim a part of. That group was called Fadar International, and their wrath was soon apparent.

In December Fadar International, whose suit is still pending, signed over its assets to a liquidation company. The move forces MVP to liquidate assets and pay off creditors without going the route of bankruptcy court. Shortly after that move, MVP laid off its work force and ceased production. All of the company's completed units were sold to dealers and no new orders were accepted.

Late in February company executives met in a closed meeting. Little information has come forth about what took place, but officials did say the forced liquidation came as a shock, as they felt the company was doing well financially. It is said that Winston Chung may be making moves to buy the company back from the liquidation firm.

What does the future hold? Chung's spokeswoman says the vision is a simple, short-term interruption of production, that MVP RV will soon be up and running again. Time will tell if MVP RV will become another footnote in the chapter of RV firms that went the way of the dodo bird, or like the phoenix, zoom up out the ashpit of commercial intrigue.

sources: Press Enterprise, LA Times.