BILLINGS — A judge who jailed Yellowstone Club founder Tim Blixseth said Blixseth’s appeal to an appellate court to be freed marks yet another attempt to divert attention from what he did with $13.8 million from a Mexican property sale.
Blixseth has been jailed in Great Falls since April 20 on a civil contempt order from U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon. The 65-year-old Blixseth of Medina, Washington sold the property in Mexico in 2011 in defiance of a bankruptcy court order. He’s so far failed to fully account for what happened to the money.
Creditors say Blixseth owes them $286 million that he illegally drained from the Yellowstone Club for his personal use prior to its 2008 bankruptcy. The resort of the ultra-rich near Big Sky emerged from bankruptcy after it was sold in 2009. Blixseth has spent millions of dollars trying to fend off its remaining creditors.
In a report submitted to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Haddon wrote on Friday that Blixseth had shown “continued noncompliance” with the judge’s earlier orders to account for the sale proceeds from Mexico.
Haddon said one declaration submitted by Blixseth showed that he personally received $1.2 million from the sale of the Tamarindo resort in the state of Jalisco, but hasn’t revealed what happened to the money.
Blixseth’s son, Beau, and wife Jessica also received some of the proceeds from the sale, Haddon said. There have been no bank statements or other records offered to account for where that money went.
Blixseth’s attorneys have five days to respond. They did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.
Blixseth and his attorneys “continue to demonstrate, at a minimum, an unwillingness … to comply with the court’s orders,” Haddon wrote. He added that Blixseth’s appeal to the 9th Circuit was “yet another example of an ongoing attempt to divert attention from the reality that remains — Blixseth continues in contempt for noncompliance with the court’s orders.”