CFS's Latest Round in Court

Tuesday, July 27th 1999, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Representatives of the once high-flying Commercial Financial Services were back in court today for the first time since the company closed last week. Some new details about the final days of the company, and what will happen next, came out in court.

A week ago, CFS was a crippled company on the market. Now it's preparing to auction assets in a liquidation sale. The change came when the only interested buyer backed out. Nearly all the employees were laid off when the company closed its doors.

CFS president Fred Caruso said the company was losing a million dollars a week before it closed and that all but 140 employees lost their jobs. Caruso hopes to liquidate all assets by October 1st. He wants to leave Cityplex Towers as soon as possible to save money on rent. But first, information on hundreds of computers must be transferred, so new debt collectors can take over where CFS left off.

The company now is working to preserve that data and determine how to sell its assets. The company, to help others with their benefits and final paychecks retained some human resources employees. Caruso believes a final liquidation plan will be agreed on in a few days, thus giving former employees the final word on their benefits and ending another chapter of the CFS story.

No decisions were made today on severance pay for employees. That issue was moved to another court date next week.